Notebook: Whyte unhappy with referee's actions at end of TKO loss to Fury

Fury eyes exhibition vs. UFC champ Ngannou and return to WWE; Fight Freaks Unite podcast; Quick hits; Show and tell

Apr 25, 2022

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Dillian Whyte said Monday that his fight with heavyweight champion Tyson Fury was stopped prematurely and that referee Mark Lyson should have called a foul and given him recovery time during the fight-ending sequence because Fury shoved him to the mat after connecting with a damaging right uppercut.

“When the uppercut landed I was buzzed. I was trying to re-gather my senses and he proper pushed me and I fell over and hit my head on the canvas, which is illegal,” Whyte said in an interview with Sky Sports. “This ain’t wrestling. This is boxing. But as usual, they let Fury do what he wants and get away with it. I should’ve been allowed extra time to recover and then carried on fighting. Referee ain’t doing his job.

“OK, I got caught. Good shot, an uppercut. No doubt about it. I was hurt. I didn’t go straight down. I was trying to recover. Then he two-handed pushed me and I fell over and hit my head. Terrible job from the referee there. I should have had time to recover and go back to my corner. But it is what it is.”

In the waning seconds of the sixth round on Saturday, Fury connected with a brutal right uppercut and then did shove Whyte, who crashed to the mat flat on his back.

As Lyson began to count, Whyte (28-3, 19 KOs), 34, rolled over on all fours and got to his feet by eight. But when he took a step forward at Lyson’s command, his legs betrayed him and he badly wobbled into the ropes. Lyson grabbed him and waved off the fight with one second left in the round.

Whyte, who did not do an in-ring interview after the bout or appear at the post-fight news conference, told Sky he would like a rematch with Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs), 33, his British countryman, who said he would retire after the fight. Together they generated a sold-out crowd of 94,000 — a European boxing attendance record — at Wembley Stadium in London.

“I hope (Fury) doesn’t retire because I want another go,” Whyte said. “I’m not a sore loser. You win some, you lose some. This is boxing.”

It appears unlikely he will get a rematch but Whyte said he would nonetheless continue to box.

“I’m not one of those guys who wants to go out on a loss or a bad performance,” Whyte said. “I’m still young enough. I still go a lot left in me. I still feel strong. I’m still getting better. I fought he best in the world, wasn’t outclassed. It’s not a long, hard road back. One fight and I’m back.”

Fury eyes Ngannou exhibition

Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury reiterated his claim that he would retire from boxing on Saturday following a one-punch sixth-round stoppage of mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte before a European-boxing record crowd of 94,000 at Wembley Stadium in London, but he certainly left himself some wiggle room.

While Fury, who dropped Whyte with a heavy right uppercut, may not engage in an official boxing match in the future — if he is to be believed — he certainly is still interested in combat of some kind.

During his post-fight in-ring interview with ESPN on the United States pay-per-view telecast, the 6-foot-9, 264-pound Fury motioned to another large man standing a few feet from him in the ring and asked him to join him.

It was the 6-4, 260-pound Francis Ngannou, the current UFC heavyweight champion and he and Fury both said they want to fight each other in some sort of “hybrid” bout. I wrote about it for Big Fight Weekend, so please read the story here: https://bigfightweekend.com/news/fury-really-retiring-or-hybrid-fight-with-ufc-champ-ngannou/

WWE for ‘Gypsy King’?

In addition to the prospect of an exhibition match with Ngannou, Fury also said he could make a return to WWE, potentially at SummerSlam on July 30 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, and/or at an event WWE has scheduled for Sept. 3 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

“Don’t rule me out of fighting there,” Fury said of the Cardiff show during his news conference after knocking out Whyte. “You might see me at SummerSlam. I’ve got to speak to (WWE CEO) Vince (McMahon) and the boys and maybe make this happen.”

Fury added that he also has interest in facing Scotland’s two-time WWE champion Drew McIntyre when the pro wrestling promotion stages the event in Cardiff.

“I know Drew McIntyre has been saying a lot of things about me,” Fury said. “I might have to knock him out. I’d love to be in Cardiff. I’d love to be back at center stage in the U.K., especially for the wrestling. I enjoyed it last time in Saudi Arabia. It was fantastic. So, to come here (to the U.K.) to do it would be phenomenal. We’re definitely going to make a bit of contact and see if we can make the SummerSlam thing a reality.”

In late 2019, Fury did a short stint with WWE that culminated with his participation in the Crown Jewel event at King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he knocked out Braun Strowman with a right hand that sent him out of the ring.

Fight Freaks Unite podcast

Following Tyson Fury’s knockout of Dillian Whyte to retain the heavyweight championship, TJ Rives from Big Fight Weekend and I discussed all things Fury-Whyte on the recap podcast. It is available to listen to wherever you get your podcasts but also available via video on YouTube, which you can watch here:

May 21 Top Rank card

Top Rank on Monday made official its even on May 21 (ESPN/ESPN Deportes/ESPN+), which, as expected, will be headlined by Janibek Alimkhanuly against Danny Dignum for the vacant WBO interim middleweight title at Resorts World Las Vegas.

“Janibek is a special talent, one of the very best to come from Eastern Europe in recent years,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said. “He’s getting the platform he deserves — a Las Vegas main event on ESPN — and I expect him to look sensational against a tough Englishman like Danny Dignum. Janibek has everything it takes to reign as middleweight world champion for a very long time.”

Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7 KOs), 28, a 2016 Olympian Kazakhstan fighting out of Oxnard, California, and fellow southpaw Dignum (14-0-1, 8 KOs), 29, of England, will vie for the interim belt while full titleholder Demetrius Andrade is moving up to face Zach Parker for the vacant WBO interim super middleweight belt. If Andrade wins, he will have to decide whether to remain at 168 pounds or return to 160 and defend against the Alimkhanuly-Dignum winner.

“Demetrius Andrade and Jaime Munguia avoided fighting me, so I give Danny Dignum a lot of credit for stepping up to the plate,” Alimkhanuly said. “While the division’s top names are avoiding me, they won’t be able to run forever.”

Dignum will be boxing outside of England for the first time.

“I am absolutely buzzing to be fighting Janibek for the WBO interim middleweight world title,” he said. “It’s a dream come true to be headlining a show in Las Vegas. All the sacrifice over the years has been worth it to get to this point. I’m very confident in my ability and will be coming to Resorts World to win that title.”

In the 10-round co-feature, WBO junior lightweight titlist Jamel Herring is moving up to lightweight and will face Jamaine Ortiz (15-0-1, 8 KOs), 25, of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Herring (23-3, 11 KOs), 36, of Coram, New York, will be fighting for the first time since losing his 130-pound belt by one-sided 10th-round knockout to Shakur Stevenson in October. The fight will also be Herring’s first since parting ways with trainer Brian McIntyre to work with Manny Robles.

“I’m happy to be back, starting the new year with a fresh start,” Herring said. “A lot has changed since I was last in the ring. I am working with a new trainer, Manny Robles, and returning to the lightweight division for this upcoming fight. I’m optimistic that a victory here will place me back in the title picture at either lightweight or junior lightweight.”

Herring defended his title three times before 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist and former WBO featherweight titlist Stevenson dethroned him in the in Atlanta.

Ortiz has won his only fight since an eight-round majority draw with Joseph Adorno last April and is taking a big step up against Herring.

“Jamel Herring is a tremendous fighter with an impeccable resume, and I have all the respect in the world for what he’s accomplished, but on May 21, he’s stepping into my ring in my weight class, and I will show him — and the entire world — why I’m the future at 135 pounds,” Ortiz said.

Quick hits

Former lightweight titleholders Richard Commey and Jose Pedraza have a deal in place for a fight slated for July 23 (site TBA) on a Top Rank card on an ESPN platform, sources with knowledge of the deal told Fight Freaks Unite. The fight will take place at junior welterweight, according to the sources. Commey (30-4, 27 KOs), 35, of Ghana, is coming off a one-sided unanimous decision loss to Vasiliy Lomachenko in a lightweight fight on Dec. 11 at New York’s Madison Square Garden as part of that deal, Top Rank owes him a return fight. Puerto Rico’s Pedraza (29-4, 14 KOs), 32, also a former junior lightweight titlist, is also coming off a loss, a competitive decision to former unified junior welterweight titlist Jose Ramirez on March 4 in Fresno, California.

Negotiations for a summer catch weight fight between middleweight contender Jamie Munguia and super middleweight contender Daniel Jacobs, which was in talks to headline a Golden Boy card on DAZN this summer, have ended. According to a source with knowledge of the negotiations, the issue, as it usually is, was money with DAZN and the Jacobs camp unable to come to terms. Munguia (39-0, 31 KOs), 25, of Mexico, a former junior middleweight world titlist, would have been taking a step up from second-tier opponents he has faced since moving up to middleweight in 2020. Jacobs (37-4, 30 KOs), 35, of Brooklyn, New York, a former middleweight titlist, is coming off a disputed split decision loss to John Ryder on Ryder’s turf in London on Feb. 12.

England’s Paul Butler (34-2, 15 KOs), 33, won the vacant WBO interim bantamweight title by decision over the Philippines’ Jonas Sultan (18-6, 11 KOs), 31, on Friday in Liverpool, England. Butler, a former IBF titleholder, won 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112. Sultan was a late replacement for WBO titlist John Riel Casimero, who was supposed to face mandatory challenger Butler but not allowed to fight by British authorities because he broke their medical guidelines pertaining to cutting weight. Because the Philippines’ Casimero (31-4, 21 KOs), 34, had previously withdrawn on short notice from facing Butler in December, he was warned beforehand that if he did not fight Butler on Friday he would be stripped. The WBO is going through its due process but Butler is likely to be stripped this week and Butler elevated.

Making his first defense, Masataka Taniguchi (16-3, 11 KOs), 28, a Japanese southpaw, retained the WBO strawweight title by 11th-round knockout of countryman Kai Ishizawa (10-2, 9 KOs), 25, on Friday in Tokyo in a rematch of an eight-round decision win in 2019. Ishizawa was not eligible to win the 105-pound belt because he weighed in at 110 pounds, a whopping five pounds over the limit. Nonetheless, Taniguchi broke him down and stopped him at 2 minute, 29 seconds of the 11th round.

Show and tell

When Gennadiy Golovkin knocked out Ryota Murata in the ninth round of an exciting but mostly one-sided fight to unify the IBF and WBA middleweight titles on April 9 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, it was the culmination of what was a long wait to the fight. The spread of Covid-19 caused the Japanese government to close the borders, leaving GGG unable to travel there, not to mention that even if he could, the inability to have a large crowd made the fight a no go for the original date of Dec. 29 because the live gate money was so important to the bottom line. Organizers looked at February, but large crowds were still not permitted at venues so the fight was once again delayed until earlier this month.

When it finally happened, the fight drew a crowd of about 15,000 — the allowable limit in an arena that can hold more than double that. As a nod to the Covid era we have lived in since early 2020, spectators were given what I view as an awesome collectible that represents the times — a face mask meant to go over the mask folks were required to wear into the building. They are labeled with the fight date and site and one side of the mask is adorned with artwork of GGG and the other side with Murata. I now have a few unopened ones in my collection. Here is what each side looks like.

Fury-Whyte photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

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