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Matchroom has officially confirmed that, as revealed this morning, next week’s heavyweight clash between Dillian Whyte and Otto Wallin is off after the former suffered a shoulder injury in training
“I am devastated as I had a great camp, was in great shape, and had great sparring,” said Whyte. “I was looking forward to knocking Wallin out and would have done so in the first half of the fight. I am devastated about not being able to fight on October 30 but I want to thank everyone for all of their support.”
“Dillian carried this injury for the last couple of weeks but it worsened in sparring on Monday night and it was impossible for him to continue,” said Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn. “It’s a huge shame because Dillian had a great camp before the injury and was ready to go. The show will continue on October 30 without Dillian and we wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back in the ring very soon.”
Wallin’s promoter, Dmitry Salita, tells ESPN that he’s demanded medical proof of Whyte’s injury. It’s worth noting again that the WBC explicitly named the interim champion, not the winner of Whyte’s fight with Wallin, as Tyson Fury’s next opponent; Whyte currently holds the title and could thus skip Wallin entirely to jump into a title fight.
Not saying that’s what Whyte’s doing, just that it’s something he could do.
The October 30th show will go on as planned, with Chantelle Cameron’s 140 lb title unification match with Mary McGee now serving as the headliner. Also on tap are Alen Babic vs Eric Molina and Craig Richards’ return to action against Marek Matyja.