Mike Costello believes that age may be catching up with Dillian Whyte.
Whyte secured a majority decision win over Jermaine Franklin on Saturday in a fight shown live on DAZN, and while he ended the American’s unbeaten run in professional boxing he was less dominant than he had been in previous match-ups.
It was a comeback for Whyte of some success, getting back to winning ways after his April defeat to Tyson Fury in a challenge for the WBC championship, but speaking on DAZN after the fight, Costello wondered where the Briton would go from here.
“Strangely I thought you can agree with both of the scorecards. and I know two of the scorecards had him winning by eight rounds to four, but some of those rounds were so difficult to score in terms of the body punches landed by Dillian whyte, the body shots, and some of the head shots by Jermaine Franklin.
“I wouldn’t argue with any of those scorecards, but going into that last round, I did feel sitting at ringside that that last round might be crucial because of the nature of how that contest had gone, but also ... maybe it was one of those occasions when a boxer found himself against two opponents, and one of the opponents was the old fellow called Father Time.
“And tonight he turned up I think in front of Dillian Whyte.”
Costello also cautioned that the presence of Buddy McGirt, Whyte’s new trainer, might have arrived to help a fighter with too many miles on the clock.
“Looking at that as a first fight under Buddy McGirt, there might be improvements to come but I’m struggling with that,” he said. “Three knockouts, savage knockouts, but aside from that, two fights with Derek Chisora, the fight against Joseph Parker, the fight against Oscar Rivas, another hard night here.
“There’s a lot of hard nights in the back catalogue. I'm struggling to believe there’s a better Dillian Whyte to come.”
Asked if Whyte remained a top fighter in the rankings of heavyweights, Costello was unsure.
“Genuinely, and I’m not being facetious, how wide is the top table?” he asked.
“If you’re talking about Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk and I’d put [Anthony] Joshua there as well - I don't think he belongs there. I understand how they can build a rematch against Anthony Joshua because of what happened last time, but after that performance, it’s going to take a lot of selling.”