Dillian Whyte makes it a revenge mission as he halts Alexander Povetkin in four rounds to regain WBC Interim world title

Dillian Whyte regained the WBO Interim world title with a fourth round stoppage of Alexander Povetkin in Gibraltar last night.

The heavyweight contest had been billed ‘Repeat Or Revenge’ and it turned out to be convincingly the latter for the Brixton puncher at Europa Point Sports Complex.

Povetkin was clearly trailing on points when he produced a huge left uppercut in the fifth round to turn around their first meeting in August. But the 41-year-old Russian – who had been hospitalised with Covid-19 and forced to reschedule the rematch – was on shaky legs from the initial moments of the bout before any clean shots had really landed.

Whyte set up big right hands behind his left jab to take the first three rounds on the scorecard.

And it was a couple of crunching right hands before detonating a sweeping left hook which dropped Povetkin. Although he climbed off the canvas referee Victor Loughlin correctly waved the fight off.

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

“I was so close, and then one lapse in concentration and I made a mistake [in the first bout with Povetkin]. Tonight, I was like ‘yo’, I’m looking to beat some a** 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 losses – 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, promoter] tomorrow and ask him what we’re doing next. I want to make the most of it now and retire good and healthy.”

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