Eddie Hearn says Dillian Whyte should be Tyson Fury's next opponent if Fury's scheduled trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder does not happen in 2020 — should Whyte get past Alexander Povetkin on Aug. 22.
Matchroom Boxing fighter Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) main events the fourth Fight Camp card against Povetkin (35-2-1, 24 KOs), and whoever emerges from the third meeting between Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) and Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) with the WBC heavyweight championship would have to defend against the Whyte-Povetkin victor.
That title fight was set to take place later this year, but the continued lack of live crowds due to the coronavirus pandemic led to Fury's promoter Bob Arum telling the SiriusXM Boxing podcast that it would now likely wait until February 2021 so that fans are able to attend.
This revelation led to Hearn wondering why the mandatory title bout cannot instead come before the trilogy.
“If he does [move it to February], then I think that fight should be cancelled," Hearn told IFL TV. "I think Dillian Whyte should be enforced immediately as the mandatory for Tyson Fury.
“We’ve already got a deadline by the end of February. Why can’t they do the fight?
"Yes, we know there’s a pandemic, but Joshua’s fighting. All the other major fights are going to take place. So I don’t see how that’s even an argument. If that’s the case, we’ll be pushing hard to make sure that actually — we could do Tyson Fury versus Dillian Whyte now.
"We’ll do it on pay-per-view. Monstrous fight. Does 1.5-2 million buys. Saudi [Arabia]. Here. [You want a gate] but the pay-per-view numbers are huge for that fight. That’s a big fight, why not do that now? But [Whyte] has to beat Povetkin [first].”
Arum was quick to dismiss Hearn's idea, however.
"The WBC approved the trilogy contract and that provides for postponements," he told Talksport. "Dillian Whyte, nobody's ever heard of him in the United States."
Frank Warren, who co-promotes Fury with Arum, says the unbeaten fighter does not want to wait until 2021 to fight again — but that they would target Anthony Joshua next, not Whyte.
Fury and Joshua have tentatively agreed to a two-fight heavyweight unification showdown down the line, assuming they keep their respective championships along the way.
"I spoke to [Fury] this morning," Warren told BT Sport. "That ain’t happening. He’s fighting this year.
“He doesn’t want that, and I don’t want it for him, and he certainly doesn’t want it. He wants that fight [against Wilder] to happen this year by hook or by crook.
"Obviously, you want to fulfill his contractual commitment, but he’s NOT going to wait until February. That can’t happen.
"He said to me, ‘I want to fight this year,’ so that’s my job to make sure that he fights this year."
"What’s the fight that everybody wants to see? I don’t want to hear about Dillian Whyte or all these guys. [Fury vs Joshua] is the fight that everybody wants to see. That is the fight."