The World Boxing Council have sent out a press release stating that WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) must next face the winner of this Saturday’s contest between #7 WBC Dominic “Trouble” Breazeale (18-1, 16 KOs) and #11 WBC Eric Molina (26-5, 19 KOs).
This news impacts Matchroom Sport Promoter Eddie Hearn, who had been hoping to match his fighter #3 WBC Dillian “The Body Snatcher” Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) against Wilder next on February 3 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Hearn has offered Wilder $4 million to take the fight with Whyte. Hearn reportedly DOESN’T believe the press release from the WBC is correct, as he thinks that Whyte will be moved to No.1 following his 12 round unanimous decision win over Robert Helenius last Saturday night on the undercard of IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s title defense against Carlos Takam in Cardiff, Wales.
Here’s what the WBC’s press release said about the Breazeale vs. Molina fight:
”This fight [Breazeale vs. Molina] will be a final eliminator; a fact that adds an extra ingredient of motivation to excel, whatever the odds.”
If Hearn can discuss this issue with the WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman on the phone, perhaps he can have his organization change their mind about letting the Breazeale-Molina fight be the final eliminator for Wilder’s WBC title.
Wilder has a title defense against Bermane Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs) in the main event this Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Breazeale-Molina is the co-feature bout on the card.
Wilder facing the Breazeale vs. Molina winner won’t keep him from fighting a unification match against Anthony Joshua in 2018. The only thing it alters if Hearn’s ability to try and get Wilder to face Whyte. Hearn feels that fight is necessary to build up the name value for the winner of that fight for the British public in the UK. Hearn has said repeatedly that he believes Whyte will beat Wilder, which kind of undercuts his ability to get the American heavyweight to agree to the fight.
After all, what does Wilder stand to gain by fighting Hearn’s stable fighter Whtye in the UK on February 3rd if it’s a fight that he could lose? It doesn’t make much sense for Wilder to give away home advantage to fight one of Hearn’s stable fighters, who isn’t popular even in his own country of the UK.
Hearn has been talking about wanting to add to the original $3 million offer made to Wilder to accept the fight with Whyte. However, Hearn has been very clear that he WILL NOT give Wilder his $7 million asking price to face Whyte. Wilder sees Hearn as trying to pull a fast one to keep his golden goose Joshua from getting beaten by him.
”Dillian Whyte is just a decoy right there. This is just to stir things up,” said Wilder. “When does a champion have to go through somebody to get to another champion? I’m a risk to what they got going on in England,” said Wilder about him being a threat to Hearn’s money maker Joshua. “It’s a big circle and AJ is the guinea pig in the middle. Eddie Hearn is a spoiled brat kid that grew up with everything. It’s money before loyalty with him. All he sees is money. With Joshua, all he sees is money. When it comes to me, I’m like that blockage for the money. ‘So, I’m going to put Dillian Whyte in front of you, although he’s a [expletive] fighter.’ He couldn’t beat Robert Helenius, which my man [Johann] Duhaupas, I fought, knocked him out. He went 12 rounds and almost got beaten. I’m supposed to fight this man [Whyte] and not get a guarantee to fight Joshua. Can’t you see what’s going on? Everybody believes in the hype [Joshua]. I got the most respect in boxing, period,” said Wilder.
The WBC installing the winner of the Breazeale-Molina winner as the next opponent for Wilder puts Hearn’s vision of Whyte getting an undeserved title shot out of commission. There’s not much Hearn can do now. I suppose Hearn can still insist that Wilder fight Whyte in 2018 in the summer, but that was when he had talked of wanting to make the Joshua-Wilder fight. Anyway, it didn’t look like Wilder was going to take the fight with Whyte, so it’s really neither here nor there that he’s going to be facing the Breazeale vs. Molina winner next after he deals with Stiverne.
Joshua has recently knocked out Molina and Breazeale. Joshua stopped Molina in the in round 3 on December 10 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Molina fought like he was frozen in marble. As far as I can tell, Molina didn’t throw a single punch the entire fight. He looked terrified of Joshua. Breazeale was stopped in the 7th round last year by Joshua on June 25 at the O2 Arena in London. Breazeale came back from that defeat to beat Izuagbe Ugonoh by a 5th round knockout on February 25 of this year.
