Slow, fat, banned, ignored and too dangerous: Why even a win over Joseph Parker won’t stop Dillian Whyte excuses

Whyte has been avoided by Deontay Wilder and many other big names, but not Parker, who is as fearless as he is polite

Both Dillian Whyte and Joseph Parker are old souls in a modern boxing business where it seems men only fight each other if the sums make sense.

This Saturday they fight at the O2 without a belt in sight, without the elusive certainty of a grand fee and they are fighting for something that they would probably struggle to identify in a line-up of mixed ambitions. They also meet without solid promises, the flimsy currency behind most fights that occupy Saturday night on television; Whyte and Parker are fighting because they both know that is what boxers from inside the top 10 in the world must do. There is no measurable macho index in boxing, which is a pity because it would brilliantly expose the continued comedy of rankings, boasts and fights that make no sense.

Parker has been world heavyweight champion, tasted that fame and lost in a muted affair to Anthony Joshua in late March. This is the New Zealander’s risky return, his shortcut to something and at the same time it is a fight that could send him crashing down an escape chute and far, far away from a spot in the heavyweight reckoning. Parker could have so easily held his high-ranking and been safely recycled against a hundred men, all selected without a hope of making him break a sweat.

Whyte lost a forgotten slugfest to Joshua in 2015 and since that night he has not put a foot wrong as he has dismantled every considerable obstacle thrown at him. He beat Dereck Chisora, Finland’s Robert Helenius and Australian Lucas Browne, leaving behind a trail of memories, blood, damaged men and rueful bookies; the bookies have been coy at best with their love for Whyte. It also seems that the sanctioning bodies have acquired an annoying blindspot with the big lad from Brixton and the more he wins, the better the opposition, the further he seems to be from a world title fight. He was declared not financially viable by the cabal of seasoned opportunists behind WBC champion Deontay Wilder and that is an awful message to send to fighters shaped, like Whyte, through toil in filthy gyms and not those lost souls guided by the dodgy voices of vanity and fame in a Kardashian universe.

“It seems that being able to fight and wanting to fight are not enough,” said Whyte. “I just keep fighting the men put in front of me and when I keep winning I will surely get my chance. This struggle is nothing new to me.” Win or lose on Saturday, there are likely to be a few more creative excuses before Whyte gets a world title fight. However, Parker, in victory, could get a call from Wilder’s people. Whyte is simply too dangerous for the risk involved, as Wilder’s protection team said.

Whyte and Parker will fight on the 28th July (Getty)

As a child growing up in south London, where he lived after leaving Jamaica when he was 12, Whyte was blood-splattered and at real risk of not becoming an adult. He was shot twice, shot at three times, stabbed and stupidly wayward. He was jailed, devoted to his mother, friends and family and dumb enough to have got himself violently killed a few times and lucky enough to have survived. A boxing gym called Miguel’s, near Loughborough Junction, once a no-go zone a mile from Brixton, really did save his life and the rest is cliché-free. Whyte, incidentally, once removed a bullet from his leg with pliers, a lighter and a love of Rambo movies as his medical guide.

He beat Joshua as an amateur in his very first fight and was soon blacklisted by the boxing authorities because of his temporary success as a kick-boxer; he made peanuts on a dark circuit but it was enough to end his amateur hopes. Whyte’s face seldom fits, trust me. He turned professional, was winning and threatening to breakthrough when he failed a drug test after using an over-the-counter product called Jack3D. Whyte was given a two-year suspension for the error and nobody wanted him in November 2014 when his harsh ban was lifted.

He was still hefty, sluggish from the break, when he bludgeoned a pair of victims on consecutive Friday nights at the Camden Centre, opposite St. Pancras train station, that November on a pair of boxing nights straight from the ‘50s. A few hundred had paid their £30 to watch those fights, Whyte’s fee barely covered the cost of a post-fight meal, but he was back in the game and that is why he took the two fights. At ringside, both nights, his devoted flock surrounded me and watched; just a year later the same men were skirmishing with Joshua’s tracksuited horde when they finally met. Joshua won the rematch, Whyte wants the decider and a win puts him on a shortlist for 2019. Whyte, by the way, is a good man now.

Whyte has been called too slow, too fat, banned, ignored, is far too dangerous and it is fantastic that Parker, as fearless as he is polite, agreed to the fight. It is a terrific fight for anybody left with a pair of rose-tinted glasses, a fight to lift the spirits of even the most cynical of lingering boxing fans.