It’s generally awkward when a fighter is asked to discuss a fight in which he was brutally knocked out.
Dillian Whyte was no exception during Thursday’s final news conference before his rematch with Alexander Povetkin on Saturday night at Europa Point Sports Complex in the British territory of Gibraltar, which borders Spain.
Whyte had put Povetkin down twice and seemed to be on his way to a stoppage when the Russian ended the fight with a single uppercut in Round 5 last August outside London.
“Yeah, you know,” he started when asked about the setback. “The first fight was a good fight, we both fought well. I knocked him down a couple of times. He came back to win. Congratulations to him, he landed a good punch. He did well.
“I’m glad that he took the rematch. And I’m glad that we’re here again. We’re about to get it on in two days.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8RBRhTU3uA
Indeed, the blessing for Whyte is that he has the opportunity to change the conversation. And what better way to do that than pay Povetkin back in kind.
Whyte (27-2, 18 KOs) acknowledged that his primary goal is to emerge victorious, however that looks. But he also has made it clear that he wants to do to Povetkin what Povetkin did to him.
“I’m a competitor,” Whyte responded when asked whether he wants a knockout. “I hate losing anything. So I want to make it 1-1. That’s the plan.”
Whyte’s trainer, Xavier Miller, chalked up the earlier setback to “heavyweight boxing” and shifted focus to Saturday.
“The tone of the fight, the way the fight was going, it was only going one way,” Miller said. “But this is heavyweight boxing. We’ve made no excuses, we’ve just gone straight back into the camp.
“And all I want to focus on now is Saturday. Like I said, the last fight is done. We have to win on Saturday, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs) also has no interest in focusing on the first fight.
The 41-year-old former Olympic champion implied that the rematch could look different from the original. He also made it clear that he’s not even thinking about the prospect of another stoppage.
“You always forget the first fight,” he said through a translator. “… I think Dillian will be better in the second fight than he was in the first one. At the same time, I’ll try to be more careful, to pay attention to my defense. …
“I don’t have this feeling that I will knock him out. I’m just coming over to win. It could go the distance. I’m not focused on the knockout. I just need to follow my plan.”
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