Whyte crushes Povetkin in four

Dillian Whyte scored a sweet and emphatic revenge, halting former conqueror Alexander Povetkin in four rounds in their heavyweight rematch at the Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar on Saturday evening.

Seven months after his shock fifth-round defeat to the Russian veteran at Matchroom’s Fight Camp, a far sharper Whyte dominated the return with Povetkin looking a shadow of his former self and continually rattled by stiff right hands.

It was a vindication for the Brixton banger who immediately triggered the rematch clause after a perfect left uppercut from Povetkin turned what seemed certain victory into disaster in their first encounter last August.

“I’m happier for my team than I am for me because some of my staff missed Christmas with their families. They stayed back to help me train. They did so much behind the scenes to get me into the position for a world title fight,” said Whyte, who regained the WBC’s ‘Interim’ heavyweight title.

“I was so close [in the first fight] and then one lapse in concentration and I made a mistake. Tonight, I was like ‘Yo, I’m looking to beat some ass tonight’. I was trying to get it done in the first round but then I had to relax. Anybody on the planet that gets hit with that left hook, they’re going down. Some of them might get up but most will stay down. He was kind of badly hurt. Now I feel bad. I want him to go home to his family healthy. 

“Everyone says a lot of things about me like I’m not this and I’m not that. These guys don’t know me. These guys don’t know what I’m capable of and what I can do. When I read the comments about me, I just laugh. I just laugh at these guys because I’m as strong as steel.

“One loss, two loss so what. It was a good learning fight for me because I had to think in there. I was rushing him but I had to think also. He’s still very heavy-handed and he’s still very good. I’m going to spend some time with my family and just relax. I’ll probably call Eddie [Hearn] tomorrow and ask him what we’re doing next. I want to make the most of it now and retire good and healthy.”

Having suffered a bout of Covid-19 since their first meeting, Povetkin’s balance seemed awry from the opening bell. He stumbled around the ring after a first round Whyte assault and, though most of the Londoner’s early artillery whistled past him, his legs just didn’t seem right.

The Russian was swollen under the left eye in the second, but starting to find his range. He still looked vulnerable and was nailed by a big right hand in the third as Whyte’s greater quality and precision held sway.

Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) hurt Povetkin again with a right hand in the fourth, but the Russian engaged and still appeared somewhat threatening on the counter. But Povetkin’s equilibrium looked increasingly off as the round progressed with those hefty right hands taking a heavy and brutal toll.

Suddenly, a right hand sent the groggy Russian into the ropes as his faculties seemed to desert him altogether. Another right left him stumbling drunkenly in centre ring. Finally, a huge left hook dropped Povetkin (36-3-1, 25 KOs) by the ropes and, though he hauled himself to his feet, the towel came in.

Afterwards, promoter Eddie Hearn beat the drum for a fight against former WBC champion Deontay Wilder. “We called for the Wilder fight for a long time. That’s a stadium fight, that’s a colossal fight,” said Hearn.

Whyte may have to explore that option with world heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua seemingly engaged in a two-fight series, tying up the title belts for the foreseeable future. But a resurgent Whyte isn’t going away any time soon.

After lacking sparkle, Ipswich heavy Fabio Wardley finished with a flourish, scoring a fifth-round knockout of two-time world title challenger Eric Molina.

With his hands low, Wardley (11-0, 10 KOs) posed more than punched in a cagey opening. Molina slowly started to fancy the job but turned away in the third after an unseemly maul. 

A stiff right hand in the fifth buzzed Wardley but just as Molina (27-7, 19 KOs) pounced he was caught by a right hand and left hook and dropped for the full count by the ropes. A mixed bag of a performance, but Wardley has that equaliser.

“My corner weren’t too happy because sometimes I get a little bit, not lose my head, but I get a little bit bored of playing the long game and waiting it through in the tactics side,” said Wardley. “My heart won over a bit and I got stuck into a little bit of a war.

“I’m by no means the finished article. I’ve still got a lot to learn and that’s why we need fights like that because in other fights I’ve had where I’ve hit people, I’ve stuck it on them and they’ve gone missing. Molina didn’t go missing until we really had to dig it out.

“There was a few lessons there for us to watch back and for us to tick off. We’ll go back to the drawing board and figure them out. I needed this type of fight at this stage of my career. You can do it as much as you want in sparring and all of those type of things but it’s different when you get here under the bright lights.

“You need to test yourself in different ways and that’s what tonight was all about. I don’t go hunting for names, that’s not my style. I don’t go calling people out. I’m going for Titles, belts and accolades. That’s where we’re going next. We’re still trying to build and get those good level of opponents. At the same time, I’m now looking for that next step up. European, Commonwealth or British, something like that.”

The always value for money Ted Cheeseman scored a scintillating 11^th round knockout of James Metcalf in a stirring encounter for the vacant British super-welterweight title that was tipped to be the fight of the night and lived up to expectation.

Cheeseman looked bright from the opening bell with his greater variety and bodywork. He detonated a stiff left hook in the third that stunned Metcalf and underlined the Londoner’s early control.

The right eye of Cheeseman (17-2-1, 10 KOs) was cut by the fourth, but the Bermondsey banger unleashed a huge right hand that left Metcalf in absolute turmoil. Cheeseman riddled the Scouser with a succession of right hands and battered him around the ring, yet somehow Metcalf (21-1, 13 KOs) stayed on his feet under a fierce onslaught.

But Metcalf was reenergised from the fifth and seemed to arrest his slide on the scorecards with his educated pressure. In the seventh, the surging Scouser tagged Cheeseman with a right hand that stopped the Londoner in his tracks. The momentum was now with Metcalf.

Cheeseman found a second wind in the ninth, bullying Metcalf in close. But it was a gruelling war of attrition. A tiring Metcalf was marked under the left eye and looked bang up against it with two rounds remaining.

Once more, Metcalf battled back but right at the end of the 11^th Cheeseman finished the argument with a huge left hook. The badly hurt Metcalf somehow scrambled upright but referee Ian John Lewis rightly waved it off.

“Again and again, I’m in exciting fights,” said Cheeseman. “I’m always in entertaining fights. I’m improving and maturing. I’m working hard in the gym. Everyone doubted me and thought that I had a lot of miles on the clock. I’m still fresh as a daisy, and again I’ve cemented myself as the number one domestic super-welterweight.

“I felt I won the first five or six rounds. I nearly had him out of there in the fourth. I thought to myself, ‘I’m not going to waste too much energy’. I used my experience and had a couple of rounds off. I don’t think he’d ever done the 12 rounds. Then it was time for me to step it up, bully him and push him back.

“It’s great to be in these fights because they’re entertaining. I’m looking forward to the future now. For a long while I was down, and everyone thought I was out. Now I’m flying again. The bookies had me as an underdog and a lot of people thought that I was going to get beat. I outboxed him, I outfought him and I knocked him out. I showed how good I am, and I showed how much I’ve improved.”

A fast start and first round knockdown from Portsmouth’s awkwardly effective Michael McKinson (20-0, 2 KOs) was enough to upset Bermondsey’s touted Chris Kongo (12-1, 7 KOs) on the cards. Scores were 97-93, 96-94 and 95-94 in a mostly technical affair.

An aggressive McKinson caught Kongo napping in the opener, jolting him with a stiff left hand and dropping him with the same shot soon afterwards in a flash knockdown. The Portsmouthian mastered the distance at mid to long range and caught Kongo by surprise with surging attacks.

Southpaw McKinson’s fast hands and sheer unpredictability were posing problems. A more aggressive, purposeful Kongo began to creep back into the contest from the fourth. McKinson landed a sharp left hand in a quiet fifth as the rounds took on a nip-and-tuck quality with little between them.

Kongo was back in the fight by the seventh but McKinson showed more urgency in the eighth with some solid left-hand work. He trapped the lanky Kongo in a corner in the ninth, but the fight was in the balance. A stronger last round for McKinson seemed to have sealed it as he gambled late and was rewarded.

“I feel on top of the world,” said McKinson. “I’ve done things the hard way in my career. For many years I’ve been calling for my shot on the big stage and I never thought it would happen. I’ve been beating people for hardly anything to work my record up to 20-0.

“Fair play to Chris, [Kongo’s manager] Dillian [Whyte] and Eddie for giving me the opportunity. I didn’t think it was ever going to happen. A big shout out to my management team MTK Global and Lee Eaton for securing me this. I believe that my career starts tonight. There was a lot of people in the boxing world that didn’t have me down as the favourite. All of my mates have made money tonight! I’m happy. I’m bringing this belt back to Portsmouth.

“In the week we’ve had a lot of hype around this fight. Everyone has been talking about it. I know he’s a respectful lad deep down, and so am I. But it did get a bit heated and everyone was questioning if it was going to live up to the hype. I think it was a bit boring, but I did what I had to do to win. Great champions do what they have to do to win and I did that tonight.

“I hope Eddie can give me the opportunities; its winner stays on. I just hope I can get on one of these shows again. Like I said in all of my interviews before, Chris is the most dangerous welterweight out there I the UK I believe but he has his weaknesses. I believe in myself. I’ve got a great team around me. I’ve given my life to this sport and it’s paid off tonight.

“I believe I’m top of the tree. There’s a lot of talk. I’ve got respect for all of the other welterweights. Josh Kelly, Conor Benn and Florian Marku. It’s a great time to be a welterweight domestically at the moment. I deserve the Conor Benn fight more than any other domestic fighter.”

Lightweight debutant Campbell Hatton (1-0, 0 KOs) – you may remember the surname – beat the winless but durable Jesus Ruiz (0-10, 0 KOs) over four rounds.

It was an industrious performance from the young Mancunian of famous parentage, without the fireworks to match the Sky Sports hype machine. Hatton hurt Ruiz to the body in the last, but the gutsy Spaniard deserved to hear the bell. Referee Victor Loughlin scored 40-36.

“There was a lot of pressure. I did the one thing I said all week that I didn’t want to do, I let the occasion get to me a bit,” said Hatton. “Now that occasion is out of the way, it can only get better. I’m pleased and I’m buzzing. It’s a dream come true. There’s no feeling like it. You always hear people say it on the telly. I didn’t realise how true it was.”

Chertsey heavyweight Nick Webb (17-2, 13 KOs) ripped up the formbook with a pulsating second-round victory over former amateur star Erik Pfeifer (7-1, 5 KOs). Webb simply would not be denied. There was a hitherto unseen hunger and intensity about his work from the opening bell.

Sensing a career-boosting opportunity, Webb began in very positive fashion, stinging a stone-cold Pfeifer with solid right hands in a vibrant opening session. In the second, Webb lowered the boom, dropping the shellshocked German three times with a sweeping left hook and then two right hands before referee Ian John Lewis waved it off. 

“I feel on top of the world,” said Webb. “Tonight before we went in we had a talk – start fast, get him out of there, we don’t get paid for overtime. Everyone doubts me, but I have come here and made a statement. So, don’t doubt me no more. I want more belts, more titles, get me out. I always believed in my self and my team believed in me, too.

“It’s indescribable. I’m so happy. I’ve been through so much pain and hurt. I put everything into that. Everything into my training camp. To get a win like that is sending the right message. It’s a big win.

“Pfeifer is a great man; he was a great amateur and he had some great fights and great wins as an amateur. We knew what was in front of us, and we knew that we didn’t want to get involved with a boxing match. I just wanted to go in and destroy him.

“We said in the changing room to start fast and hit him quick, and that’s exactly what we did. Everyone overlooks me and everyone doubts me. It’s all about self-belief and mind games. When you’ve got bombs to back the mind games up, it’s all good.”

In the show opener, Wembley super-featherweight Youssef Khoumari (12-0-1, 5 KOs) halted Birmingham’s Kane Baker (14-8, 0 KOs) in five rounds.

Main image: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing. All photos: Mark Robinson/Dave Thompson/Matchroom Boxing.