Whatever you thought of the decision, something wasn’t quite right about Dillian Whyte’s majority decision win over Jermaine Franklin on Saturday night. The crowd and the American felt it was the scoring of two of the three judges that was amiss. But even those who felt Whyte had done enough to win would have to concede something was awry.
‘The Body Snatcher’, an all-action behemoth that has overwhelmed former world champions and top contenders for the best part of a decade, looked sloppy. His timing was off and his workrate seemed to be expended entirely on hopeful overhand rights. There were few jabs and even less patience as he seemed to think he could beat Franklin on sheer will alone. Whyte did just that in the end, though another three judges might have left him staring down the barrel of a second consecutive defeat.
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That previous defeat, a sixth-round TKO loss to WBC champion Tyson Fury last April, might well be the culprit. Seven months isn’t long in boxing, but Whyte looked rusty. More than that, he looked deflated. It felt like the fact the Franklin fight was only the third he’s undertaken in over two years was only partially to blame.
Whyte fought for years as heavyweight boxing’s odd man out. Countless times he would win eliminators, ranking belts and other sanctioning body affectations. Each of these accolades was supposed to land him a title shot that never came.
So the big-punching ‘Villain’ just kept fighting. He did so at an eye-watering level too. Derek Chisora, Robert Helenius, Lucas Browne, Oscar Rivas, Joseph Parker and Mariusz Wach represent just a partial body count. This list is limited to just the men he fought who had held or fought for world titles. On resume alone, Whyte could argue he belonged near the top of the heavyweight tree.
Yet a foothold on the final branch was always denied. Then, in the gardens of Matchroom Headquarters, Whyte’s willingness to fight anyone and everyone caught up with him. He was knocked out in five rounds by former WBA champion Alexander Povetkin.
On the surface it felt like those years of momentum had been sharply derailed. But Whyte picked himself up, dusted himself off and spectacularly stopped Povetkin in the fourth round of a rematch. Suddenly, people wanted to fight the Brixton man. Whyte was still box office but now he had proven beatable. For the first time since a young Anthony Joshua stopped him in a 2015 war, someone had put a crack in the facade of ‘The Body Snatcher’.
You can argue this vulnerability is what caught the eye of Fury, who agreed to a homecoming bout against Whyte earlier this year. Dillian even carried the air of someone who might win. The way he refused to participate in Fury’s mind games, eschewing press conferences and keeping his counsel, suggested this might be a test for the WBC Champion. Then, inside the palatial confines of Wembley Stadium, the bell rang.
The fight started tentatively, but only Fury moved out of that cagey first gear. Warming to the task, he teed off on Whyte. The Jamaica-born challenger could only offer fouls and rough-housing in return. Even that was not a battle he could win, with Fury gleefully treating the rulebook with as much disdain as he does all forms of convention. The end came swiftly, Fury scoring the TKO victory in six rounds. For the third time in as many defeats, an opponent had knocked out Whyte in the middle rounds of a fight.
Franklin was supposed to be a gimme. Unbeaten but untested, the American was hired to play the restorative foil. Whyte was supposed to look good so the public would clamour for a stadium bout with Anthony Joshua next year. But nobody thought to send ‘989 Assassin’ the script. Instead, rather than Whyte’s redemption we got Franklin’s coming out party. Skilled, speedy and game; the Michigan man has surely earned further paydays.
For now at least, they won’t come against Whyte. Matchroom chief Eddie Hearn was keen to stress that ‘AJ’-Whyte II remains the plan. It makes sense after all. A fight with Franklin fills an arena, one with Joshua fills a stadium. But the aura surrounding this Great British rematch has definitely been punctured by Whyte’s performance.
Before last night, you would have thought a motivated Whyte would give Joshua fits. ‘AJ’ is in an uncertain headspace after dual losses to Oleksandr Usyk. His public meltdown in the immediate aftermath only raised further questions about the former two-time heavyweight champion. In this environment, you’d back a peak Whyte to thrive. But is Dillian still a fighter in his prime?
Losses can teach you more about a fighter than victories. In Whyte’s three defeats we have learned that he is susceptible in the middle rounds and that against the true cream of the crop, he is often found wanting. Despite his recent troubles, Joshua is still one of the finest heavyweights of this generation. At his very best, Whyte would do well to beat him. But Whyte is no longer at his very best.
The losses to Joshua and Povetkin were compartmentalised and exorcised. Whyte seemed to shrug them off because he knew he was pursuing a greater goal. That goal was the heavyweight championship of the world. But now he has fallen short while reaching for that brass ring. Whyte’s entire ring career has been centred on becoming champion. Now he has failed to do so. At the age of 34, does he have the desire required to go again?
Perhaps the do-or-die nature of an ‘AJ’ clash will bring the old Dillian out of hiding. With a stadium crowd roaring him on, against an opponent he defeated as an amateur and hurt as a pro, perhaps the fire inside will burn brightly. Because if it has been snuffed out, there’s no way back for Whyte. The Franklin win could be a new beginning for ‘The Body Snatcher’, but it could be the beginning of the end.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
