Dillian Whyte is set for an extremely high-risk bout against highly touted rising prospect Moses Itauma in Saudi Arabia.
On August 16th, Dillian Whyte will square off with Moses Itauma, who many believe is the next big talent to come through in the heavyweight division.
Whyte has been written off by many on account of his recent form – fighting lackluster opposition, and withdrawing from fights with Anthony Joshua (due to a failed PED test), Joe Joyce (due to a finger injury), and a fight on Fabio Wardley’s undercard (for an unknown reason).
Lawrence Okolie believes Itauma will KO Whyte, whilst Dave Allen thinks Itauma is all wrong for Whyte, his former foe.
Even Whyte’s old coach, Mark Tibbs, believes Itauma will beat Whyte when the pair face off.
Ahead of the fight, one of Whyte’s former foes has been the biggest critic of the match-up, and Whyte did not mince his words when responding.
Dillian Whyte slams Derek Chisora over Moses Itauma comments
In a recent interview with The Ring, Whyte opened up about comments made by Derek Chisora regarding the Itauma fight.
Chisora had previously suggested Whyte had more chance of winning the lottery than beating Itauma, and that the fight was too big a risk to take at this stage in his career.
Whyte said, “[Chisora] said ‘Why are you taking this fight?’ and I said ‘Bro, because I ain’t scared and I’m in this game to fight’ […] I said ‘I almost ended your life bro.'”
Whyte scolded Chisora for turning down the Itauma fight himself, as Chisora suggested he was offered £2M to take on the rising star.
‘The Bodysnatcher’ concluded with a scathing summary of his former rival, “[He’s] a very deluded, strange, awkward guy, and he smells as well.”
Whyte went further with his attack on Chisora, “Someone like that is poison.”
He suggested Chisora is a bad person and that he did want to fight him for a third time, but that Chisora has been ducking the fight.
The pair have fought twice – once in 2016 and once in 2018. Chisora lost on both occasions, the second time by devastating knockout.
Dillian Whyte vs Moses Itauma has one random heavyweight match-up on the undercard
Whyte and Itauma will lock horns on August 16th, topping a card that features multiple interesting match-ups.
Fan-favorite Liverpudlian Nick Ball will face Naoya Inoue‘s previously scheduled foe, Sam Goodman. Goodman never ended up facing ‘The Monster’ due to injuries, but may be facing a monster of a different kind in Ball.
Raymond Ford was set to face Anthony Cacace on the card, but was forced to withdraw with injury, and has now been replaced by 24-3-1 Abraham Nova.
In one of the more bizarre match-ups, David Adeleye follows up on his British title win with a fight against Filip Hrgovic, who defeated Joe Joyce last time out in an absolute slugfest. Adeleye said he’s open to facing Dubois next if he is able to get past Hrgovic.
Also, 7-0 Hayato Tsutsumi faces 13-3-1 Qias Ashfaq.