Eddie Hearn: Dillian Whyte Will Appeal WBC Heavyweight Title Eliminator Order
The WBC’s order to have Dillian Whyte and Luis Ortiz fight in a heavyweight title secondary eliminator has Whyte dissatisfied with the status of the title eliminator.
The winner of the fight will be the second mandatory challenger to Deontay Wilder‘s WBC heavyweight title as he already has a mandatory challenger in Dominic Breazeale. Whyte’s issue with his title eliminator, according to Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, is that it is to determine a secondary challenger and not the main challenger, despite Whyte being the No. 1 ranked heavyweight in the WBC rankings and Breazeale being the No. 2 heavyweight.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Hearn said Whyte is okay with fighting Ortiz, who is coming off a loss to Wilder back in March. Hearn said he and Whyte will appeal the decision made by the WBC and plan to meet with president Mauricio Sulaiman this week.
“We don’t mind fighting Ortiz but it has to be for the mandatory, not to be the ‘second mandatory’ behind a guy who has never fought an eliminator and who is behind Whyte in the rankings. It’s outrageous,” Hearn said.
Currently, Wilder is in negotiations to fight current unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, but should that fight not happen next for the WBC champion, then Wilder would most likely fulfill his mandatory challenge and that would be fighting Breazeale. Breazeale won his title eliminator last year when he defeated Eric Molina on the undercard of Wilder’s 2017 knockout win over Bermane Stiverne.
