Heavyweight boxer Dillian Whyte has filed a lawsuit against the World Boxing Council seeking to force the organization into arbitration as well as request limited discovery.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Florida requests assistance from the Court in obtaining discovery in preparation for an arbitration to take place in Sweden. The litigation boils down to Whyte wanting a ruling making him the regular champion, putting Fury in recess and/or fight with Tyson Fury and/or Deontay Wilder.
The filing was in Florida as the WBC’s place of business in the district. Whyte wants to pursue arbitration before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland to dispute the contract he has with the WBC that he believes the promotion breached.
Whyte currently holds the World Boxing Council’s Interim Heavyweight title. In June 2020, he filed a grievance with the WBC. The reason was the lack of receiving a title fight. He had been the number one ranked heavyweight in the WBC rankings since November 2017 per the filing. He also filed a Declaration in support of the application to the Court. The sides resolved the dispute in a confidential settlement agreement. However, a portion of the Settlement Agreement was included in the filing. A portion of which is below:
The ruling stated that negotiations for Whyte to fight the winner of Fury-Wilder III or, “if this has not occurred by then, on December 21, 2020, the WBC will issue an order staring a 30-day free negotiation period for the mandatory bout between the WBC World Champion” and Whyte.
The 33-year-old Whyte won the WBC interim heavyweight title from Alexander Povetkin in March 2021. A showdown with Deontay Wilder was talked about by Eddie Hearn, Whyte’s promoter. This was before the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder fight was made and then postponed. Of course, Tyson Fury is the holder of the WBC title.
Whyte states in his declaration that the WBC champion has not defended his belt in the past 12 months and he’s been “leapfrogged” twice by lesser opponents according to the British champ.
Payout Perspective:
An interesting request to the Court to force an arbitration. Whyte is arguing that the WBC is not following its own rules and despite going through the grievance process outlined by the organization, it is not following its own protocol. Look for the pandemic to play a part here. Also, its interesting to consider that there was no ‘step-aside’ money discussed (or at least at this point) for Whyte to wait. Whyte’s argument is one of the confounding issues with boxing. The rankings do not matter if a big fight is to be made. The obvious timing here is that it coincides with the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury fight October 9th. Whyte is trying to force a fight with the winner which makes sense for him as he can see that Anthony Joshua is the most likely opponent for the Wilder-Fury winner.
MPO will continue to follow.
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