Dereck Chisora gave a better account of himself than expected in his scorecards loss to Oleksandr Usyk on Halloween night, which led to numerous names in British boxing weighing in on the result.
Chisora's friend and former Usyk opponent Tony Bellew believes 'Del Boy' was robbed on the scorecards, while others, including Anthony Fowler, were massively impressed by the Zimbabwe-born slugger's heart but had the Ukrainian comfortably winning over 12 rounds.
Whyte, who beat Chisora twice in a heated pair of domestic showdowns, also believes the right man won but that Chisora was one tactical decision away from shocking the world.
“I thought Dereck could have done much better,” said Whyte to Sky Sports News about Chisora’s loss to Usyk. “He let himself down by not having any boxing experience in his corner to tell him and guide him to tell him what to do and not to do.
“He just went into the ring with the mindset of knockout, knockout, knockout, and that didn’t work. And he just stuck to that game plan. Dereck was the boss in the corner. There wasn’t anyone in there.
“He had some good MMA guys in there, but they’re not boxing coaches. They weren’t giving him the advice that he needed to make the changes and adjustments to beat someone like Usyk.
“I would have told Dereck to get his jab going and go to the body more often and start cutting the ring off. When Dereck did hit him to the body, Usyk didn’t like it. He was complaining and that he was getting hurt to the body.
“The corner wasn’t strong enough. Keep working the body and stop targeting the head because Usyk was leaning back and making Dereck miss. So he should have started targeting the body. I gave Dereck three or four rounds at max.
“They caught Dereck at the right time. Why wasn’t David Haye in his corner? Someone that actually knows what they’re doing. Not just having mates in his corner in the biggest fight of his life.
For the first four rounds, Chisora smothered Usyk, who competed in only his second professional bout at heavyweight, with a relentless and one-dimensional attack.
The boxing community almost unanimously awarded the first round to the Brit as a result, with some also giving him 10-9s in rounds 2-4. However, Chisora was breathing harder in each of those rounds and taking more jabs from the slick counter-puncher to boot.
From the fifth, Chisora changed tact and conserved energy while switching periodically from orthodox to southpaw and back against his natural lefty opponent. It ensured he went all 12 rounds and completed his best performance in years, but did nothing to stop Usyk from handily outlanding him.
Whyte said Chisora was a perfect choice of heavyweight opponent for Usyk to claim a comfortable big-name win in his new division, but Usyk's size and style meant it was also a great choice to make Chisora look better than he has in some time.
He said: “Chisora was aggressive, and he pushed Usyk back a lot, but that’s what Usyk was going to do anyway. Usyk was never going to come forward.
“He was just going to keep boxing on the back foot and keep picking up points. He was never going to, ‘I’m going to walk Dereck down.’ Dereck says there’s going to be a war, and he says, ‘No, no war. It’s going to be a boxing match.’
On Usyk, Whyte continued: “I don’t think he’s big enough or strong enough to be in it. I don’t think he’s resilient enough with the punches because the punches Dereck landed, they bothered him a lot.
“He’s a cruiserweight, but he’s an undefeated cruiserweight champion. So, of course, they’re going to say this, that and the other. Some people say he’s #2 or #3 or #4. I don’t know.
Indeed, Whyte maintains that Usyk's size and style would encounter serious trouble against heavyweights such as Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and even himself.
“Usyk’s only game plan and chance against the likes of us is just to try and move and outwork us,” Whyte continued. “We’re big, strong guys, and we’ll rough him up. I would have been roughing him up.”
“I wouldn’t be playing any games. When I was clinching, I’d have been roughing him up, hitting him everywhere. I’d be manhandling him. That’s the cleanest I’ve ever seen Dereck box in his whole career. Maybe he got mesmerized. Dereck is usually an aggressive dirty boxer.
"I think Joshua beats him. Joshua is going to knock him out because Joshua has got the size and power, and he’s a good active heavyweight. It’s not like he’s an old heavyweight, and Joshua has a proper team around him."