Eddie Hearn, promoter for heavyweights Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte, does not expect WBC world champion Deontay Wilder to move forward with a planned rematch with Luis Ortiz.
A few weeks ago, Wilder announced that a deal was reached to face Ortiz in a rematch on a date in September.
In March 2018, Wilder stopped Ortiz in the tenth round. But before that took place, Ortiz had rocked Wilder badly in the seventh round and nearly finished the champion off.
Hearn believes Wilder and his handlers will bypass the fight with Ortiz, and instead move forward with a rematch against Tyson Fury.
"I don’t believe Wilder will fight Ortiz. I think he’ll fight Fury next," Hearn told Boxing Social.
"I think that’s what they’ll do, and the winner will have to fight Dillian Whyte. That’s how I see it going. I don’t think Wilder now will take the risk of Luis Ortiz, which is very bad on Luis Ortiz considering they made him turn down the Joshua fight.
"I think they’ll go straight into that fight at the end of the year and the winner will have to fight Dillian Whyte."
Hearn expects the WBC to sanction Whyte's upcoming fight against Oscar Rivas for the interim-title, which in turn will make him the mandatory challenger to the title.
Whyte faces Rivas on July 20 at The O2 in London.
"I believe it will be interim title and a final eliminator for the mandatory position, it’s just a case of boxing off when that will be," Hearn said.
"It’s 600 days this week since Dillian Whyte’s been WBC number one so we don’t want to wait too much longer, but July 20 will be a very important fight for his career because if he wins that fight he will get a shot at the WBC world title."
2023-10-23 14:10:16
