British promoter Eddie Hearn says that veteran heavyweight Dereck Chisora is still the frontrunner to face Dillian Whyte on December 22 despite ageless Cuban Luis Ortiz insisting he should get the assignment instead.
While the deal for the Whyte-Chisora fight is yet to be finalised, ‘Del Boy’ revealed earlier this week that he is confident that an agreement for the rematch will soon be reached.
“Chisora is still definitely the front-runner,” Hearn said to Sky Sports.
“Ortiz is scheduled to fight on the Wilder-Fury card on December 1 and wanted to make some noise by saying, ‘I want to fight Dillian Whyte’. Maybe he will.”
Ortiz recently put his name forward as an alternative opponent. The Miami-based Cuban southpaw rebounded from his tenth round knockout loss to WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder with a second round knockout of Razvan Cojanu in Los Angeles in July.
Despite his fearsome reputation, it seems that Hearns has little interest in matching him with Whyte, who scored an impressive points victory over former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker at London’s O2 Arena in July. On the same card Chisora made himself relevant again with an eighth round technical knockout of perennial contender Carlos Takam of France.
That victory did enough to impress Hearn and put the Londoner in the frame to face the Brixton ‘Body Snatcher’.
“Chisora is a big fight and one we’ve been working on for a while,” continued the Matchroom Boxing boss. “Dillian Whyte will be boxing December 22, whatever happens, and I think it will be against Chisora.”
The winner of Whyte versus Chisora will be in the box seat to face unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in April 2019.
