Dillian Whyte has been boxing long enough to have seen plenty of young heavyweights come and go; the next big thing who fades away before living up to the hype.
But on Aug. 16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia against Moses Itauma, Whyte (31-3, 21 KOs) will face a fighter almost unanimously considered to be the next face of the division.
It is a classic potential changing of the guard fight.
Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs) is taking a step up against the veteran Whyte who has been in with almost every top fighter of the last 10 years, coming close, but never quite winning a world title. The Brixton boxer insists he is not done yet, and has no issue coming into the fight as the underdog.
“We’ve seen it time and again where all these guys built up, they’re knocking everybody out, they’re contenders, prospects,” Whyte told media ahead of the fight.
“Sometimes these guys get rushed or sometimes they get blown out of proportion and then things go wrong. It’s heavyweight boxing… It’s unpredictable. I believe in myself. Listen, I’m getting written off, but this isn’t new. Even when I was beating these guys as a No. 1 contender I was still getting written off.
“Not just in boxing, my whole life I’ve been written off. Obviously my background, where I’ve come from, I ain’t got no amateur pedigree. I never had no big promoter. I’ve done stuff the hard way.”
While he may not have a world title to his name, Whyte is in many ways a winner regardless of how the rest of his career unfolds.
He was born “in the middle of a hurricane” in Jamaica which blew the roof of his mum’s house before he moved to south London as a child. Whyte says as a boy, he sold glass bottles and fruit in an attempt to make money. He eventually turned to boxing, which “saved [his] life.”
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With all he has done and been through, you could forgive him for walking off into the sunset.
But that itch is still there.
A win over Itauma would put him back in contention to fight bigger names one last time before he eventually does hang up the gloves.
Whyte’s career has been stop-start since he failed a drugs test ahead of the scheduled rematch against Anthony Joshua in 2023. He was cleared after it was found the result was due to a contaminated supplement.
A fight against Joe Joyce in April also fell through after he suffered a hand injury in training.
Now older and wiser, the 37-year-old is reflective ahead of his next battle.
“The last three years have been frustrating. I had a handful of fights here and there, been out in the wilderness, but that’s life” Whyte says.
“As I get older you realise that life has been ups and down. We ain’t young here. Just cracking on and thinking you’ve got all the time in the world and just living life and taking stuff for granted, you know what I mean?
“But as you get older and things happen and things teach you that you can’t take nothing for granted.”