Dillian Whyte suffers shoulder injury, withdraws from fight with Otto Wallin

Some think he's just angling to land Tyson Fury fight next

Dillian Whyte, citing a shoulder injury, withdrew on Wednesday from his WBC interim heavyweight title defense against Otto Wallin scheduled for Oct. 30 at the O2 Arena in London.

“I am devastated as I had a great camp, was in great shape, and had great sparring,” Whyte said in a statement. “I was looking forward to knocking Wallin out and would have done so in the first half of the fight. I am devastated about not being able to fight on Oct. 30 but I want to thank everyone for all of their support.”

Matchroom Boxing termed the fight “canceled” in its announcement not “postponed” but the rest of the show on DAZN will go on as scheduled. The women’s WBC/IBF junior welterweight title unification fight between Chantelle Cameron (14-0, 8 KOs), 30, of England, and Mary McGee (27-3, 15 KOs), 35, of Gary, Indiana, has been moved up from the co-feature position to the main event. Matchroom Boxing said ticket refunds are available from the point of purchase.

Matchroom Boxing provided a statement from Whyte’s physician, Dr Harjinder Singh, who said, “Dillian sustained a shoulder injury during training in preparation for his planned fight on Oct. 30, which I have assessed and confirmed with diagnostic imaging. 

“I have treated the injury, but the injury will unfortunately prevent him from fighting on Oct. 30. With immediate rest, physiotherapy and rehabilitation there should be no enduring concerns.”

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said that Whyte has been dealing with the injury for the past two weeks but exacerbated it this week.

“Dillian carried this injury for the last couple of weeks but it worsened in sparring on Monday night and it was impossible for him to continue,” Hearn said. “It’s a huge shame because Dillian had a great camp before the injury and was ready to go. The show will continue on Oct. 30 without Dillian and we wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back in the ring very soon.”

Many believe Whyte will not reschedule the bout and instead seek a highly significant and lucrative fight with WBC/lineal champion and British countryman Tyson Fury in the first part of 2022.

Before Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs), 33, knocked out Deontay Wilder in the 11th round of their leading fight of the year contender to retain the title on Oct. 9 in Las Vegas, the WBC ruled that the Fury-Wilder III winner would have 30 days to secure a contract for an undisputed title fight with three-belt titleholder Oleksandr Usyk, but barring that the winner would be ordered to next face whomever held the interim title.

With Anthony Joshua invoking his contractual right to an immediate rematch with Usyk after losing the three belts to him on Sept. 25, and that bout expected to take place in March, Fury is left to face the interim titleholder — Whyte — next if the WBC stands by its order. The WBC has yet to weigh in on Wednesday’s turn of events.

The 33-year-old Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs), many believe, was in for a tough fight with Wallin, whose only loss was a competitive decision to Fury in 2019, and did not want to jeopardize a possible big-money opportunity against Fury by going through with the fight against Wallin (22-1, 14 KOs), 30, of Sweden.

That is certainly the way Wallin promoter Dmitriy Salita feels.

“Otto is very disappointed but we want the fight to be rescheduled, not cancelled,” Salita told Fight Freaks Unite. “We feel it’s the right thing to do for everybody. The entity that controls that is the WBC. After this fight was made, and then Fury won, there have been so many rumors going around that Whyte might not fight and would wait it out to get the big opportunity with Fury.

“So, with all those rumors, and with him getting injured a week before the fight, and it gets canceled the day Otto was supposed to get on the plane to go to England, it feels unsettling to us. Injuries do happen in training. We recognize that. So even if Whyte is really injured, we think the just thing to do is to reschedule the fight when Dillian is healthy and for the winner of the fight to fight Tyson Fury.”

Photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

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