Eddie Hearn is more concerned by Dillian Whyte’s psychological state than any vulnerability of his chin.
The 32-year-old Briton looked on course to retain his WBC interim championship against Alexander Povetkin as he fought the Russian in a Fight Camp event during Britain’s coronavirus lockdown.
However, his then-40-year-old opponent landed a shock uppercut to knock out his opponent.
Whyte immediately exercised a rematch clause which has set up a fight for November 21, but the Matchroom promoter told the Sun newspaper that the scale of the upset may have shaken Whyte.
“There are two ways to look at it; Dillian controlled the fight and was moments from winning until a one-in-a-million punch stunned him and the chances of that happening again in the rematch are very small,” he explained.
“Or you can say that Povetkin took two of Dillian’s best shots, got off the floor twice and stopped him with the only real punch he connected with," Hearn continued. "It wasn’t a 12-round war or a prolonged beating so physically Dillian should be fine but the rematch is more about the psychological side. Dillian demanded the rematch straight away, no hesitation, because he believes it was just a split-second mistake that he can correct.
“But Povetkin also snapped up the rematch because he now thinks he has the beating of Dillian and can pop back over to double his money with another easy night’s work. A knockout like that you can physically recover from reasonably quickly. But mentally it can leave a mark on fighters and we will find out on November 21.”