Eddie Hearn believes that any prospect of a rematch between former two-time unified heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte is now consigned to history and will most likely never happen.
Joshua & Whyte were due to face each other this upcoming Saturday at London’s O2 arena, with the pair both on the rebuild following testing 2022s, respectively.
August 5th saw VADA confirm that Dillian Whyte had failed one of their administered anti-doping test for a substance which is yet to be disclosed. Matchroom was notified of this in the early morning hours on the 5th, and Whyte was pulled immediately from the card as Joshua’s opponent. However, at the request of Joshua, a replacement opponent was found in the shape of Robert Helenius.
In an interview with DAZN’s Chris Mannix, Hearn believes any prospect of Whyte returning to the ring anytime soon, even if he is innocent, will take a long while to come to fruition. Hearn cited the recent example of Conor Benn, who himself failed two VADA anti-doping, which was confirmed in October of last year. It was only recently that Benn was given clearance to resume his career (pending if the BBBofC & UKAD wish to appeal the ruling), and he believed it could be a long, long journey till Whyte gets clarity in one shape or another.
When asked the question by Chris Mannix, “In your mind, is this fight gone forever?” - Hearn confirmed that it was.
“Yeah, I think so. I don’t know what Dillian is gonna do or how he’s gonna go about this situation - but it’s a huge, huge fight on his hands. We’ve been a year, over a year, in process with Conor Benn [and his positive drug tests]. He’s now been reinstated in the WBC rankings, he’s had his suspension lifted and cleared by UKAD, and we’re just coming out the other side of it.. you know, 12 or 13 months on,” Hearn explained to Boxing With Chris Mannix.
“You can imagine that Dillian Whyte has to go through a similar process with a different set of results and analysis that we’ve seen. And at that age [of 35], you know, is that a process that [Whyte] can come through the other side of.
“We wish him all the best. And again, I was surprised. You always believe, and you want to believe in those people [who test positive]. It’s not something that I would expect from him, knowing the meticulous way that he goes about his work and how careful he is after previous incidences that he was exonerated for, but you also can’t ignore it, and it has to be dealt with.”
