With the top of the WBC heavyweight division in a bit of disarray, Eddie Hearn is looking to get Dillian Whyte an opportunity to fight for an interim title.
The British promoter spoke to Sky Sports and stated that he is looking to get the WBC to sanction Whyte's fight against Oscar Rivas on July 20 for the interim WBC heavyweight title. Whyte has been at the top of the WBC heavyweight rankings for several months and has held the organization's Silver title since 2017 and made three successful title defenses. Hearn isn't just looking to make the fight between Whyte and Rivas an interim title bout, but also have the winner be named the mandatory challenger to Deontay Wilder's WBC world title.
"Everything that he's done in that division, all the defenses of his WBC 'Silver' title, a couple of world title eliminators, and him ranked No. 1 for god knows how long, and yet someone who is ranked four or five becomes the mandatory. We're pushing hard for a resolution, and we want the Oscar Rivas fight to be for the mandatory position with the WBC and for that interim world title. We'll see where that goes," Hearn said.
Whyte had been hoping to be named the mandatory challenger by the WBC for some time in the aftermath of the chaos that was the failed negotiations for the rematch between Wilder and Tyson Fury. Originally, Whyte and Dominic Breazeale were ordered to fight for the interim title, but when Fury signed with ESPN and chose not to have the Wilder rematch immediately, Breazeale was the next man up to fight for the WBC world title, leaving Whyte with nothing.
Now that Whyte has a fight against Rivas, ranked No. 10 by the WBC, Hearn is looking to find some way to make sure Whyte doesn't remain what he feels is shortchanged by the organization.
"We're all trying to come up with a resolution that's fair and we haven't yet, so we're still pushing. We want the Rivas fight to be for something very significant for the WBC and that's probably an interim world title fight and to become the mandatory to the winner of Deontay Wilder against Dominic Breazeale," Hearn said.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman recently appeared on Tha Boxing Voice and among the questions he was asked was the status of a potential interim title or final eliminator
"That's a request that they have made. We officially received that request and that is in the hands of the Board of Governors," Sulaiman said.
Whyte vs. Rivas is scheduled to headline a Matchroom Boxing card at The O2 in London with the fight being streamed on DAZN in the United States.
