Instead of fighting in one of two heavyweight title eliminators, Dillian Whyte will now fight former world champion Joseph Parker.
Matchroom Boxing announced that Whyte, the WBC Silver champion, will face Parker, who held the WBO heavyweight title up until a couple of months ago, on July 28. The event will take place at the O2 Arena in London on pay-per-view in the United Kingdom.
The fight against Parker comes as a bit of a surprise. Whyte had the opportunity to fight either Luis Ortiz in a WBC heavyweight title eliminator or face Kubrat Pulev in an IBF heavyweight title eliminator. A purse bud was recently conducted for the Pulev vs. Whyte bout, but now that the fight has been canceled due to Whyte fighting Parker, the next available highest-ranked contender, which would be undefeated heavyweight contender Jarrell Miller. The IBF title is currently held by unified champion Anthony Joshua while Deontay Wilder is the WBC champion.
Parker won the WBO title previously held by Tyson Fury when Parker defeated Andy Ruiz in late 2016. Parker followed it up with successful title defenses over Razvan Cojanu and Hughie Fury, setting up a title unification clash against Joshua. Joshua defeated Parker by unanimous decision to unify the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles.
Whyte is on a seven-fight win streak since being knocked out by Joshua in 2015. Whyte won the WBC Silver title when he defeated Robert Helenius in 2017 and then defended the title when he knocked out Lucas Browne this past March.
