DILLIAN WHYTE, brutally knocked out by Alexander Povetkin seven months ago, will find out if he’s gun-shy when he seeks vengeance on Saturday night.
Whyte was out cold before he hit the canvas when Povetkin’s pulverising left uppercut crashed against his chin.
Though he had fully recovered within minutes, there’s no knowing what psychological scars that devastating blow has left him with.
Being gun-shy is a term used to describe the mental state that often affects fighters who have been on the receiving end of traumatic knockouts.
It can cause someone who usually is aggressively attack-minded to go into their shell and be defensively cautious.
On Saturday night in Gibraltar, Whyte will find out if he is afflicted with the condition as soon as the opening bell sounds and the man who damaged him so severely starts walking towards him.
I believe Anthony Joshua was gun-shy in both his fights after Andy Ruiz bounced him off the floor four times to take his world heavyweight titles nearly two years ago in New York.
Six months later in Saudi Arabia, Joshua got them back in the return with a unanimous points decision — but he was extremely tentative throughout. And he was just as cagey against Kubrat Pulev four months ago.
Whyte’s shock defeat by the powerful Povetkin certainly cost him dear.
Going into the ring with the Russian that night, he was the mandatory challenger for Tyson Fury’s WBC world heavyweight crown.
The WBC has now relegated him to No 7 in the rankings — one below Joe Joyce. If that doesn’t fire up Dillian, nothing will.
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They say revenge is sweet and also it’s best served cold. Whyte should be made aware history sometimes has a nasty habit of repeating itself.
Perhaps the most famous case of a revenge bid turning disastrously sour was 58 years ago when Floyd Patterson tried to get his world heavyweight title back from Sonny Liston, who had KO’d him in the first round in Chicago.
In the Las Vegas return Liston promptly blasted him to another opening-round humiliation. The only consolation for Floyd was that he had at least lasted four seconds longer!
Closer to home, in 2013, George Groves complained bitterly he had been stopped prematurely in the ninth round when he challenged Carl Froch for his super-middleweight title in Manchester.
Six months later, after successfully campaigning for an immediate return, Groves was flattened by a perfect right hook in the eighth in front of 80,000 awe-struck fans at Wembley.
It will be fascinating to see how Whyte — the firm favourite — approaches Povetkin this time.
For someone who survived being stabbed and shot in his youth, he should not be fearful of anything or anyone.
Povetkin still carries a concussive punch but if Dillian can’t beat a 41-year-old who was recently in hospital with Covid-19, he should be in another line of business.
I COULDN’T get too excited when Lawrence Okolie stopped pathetic Pole Krzysztof Glowacki to win the vacant WBO world cruiserweight title.
Okolie got rave reviews but the WBC, WBA and IBF haven’t got Glowacki in their top 15.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
