Dillian Whyte could face double dose of disaster in Alexander Povetkin rematch… history is NOT on his side
FIGHTERS who chase immediate revenge after suffering a shock defeat instead of face-saving redemption often end up with a double-dose of disaster.
Distraught Dillian Whyte begged promoter Eddie Hearn to get him a quick rematch with Alexander Povetkin, who came from behind to knock him cold with a left uppercut from hell last month.
Whyte has got his wish and is supremely confident next time he will beat the Russian, when they meet again on November 2.
Victory for Dillian, who is the 4/11 favourite, will not only restore his pride but regain his place as the mandatory challenger for Tyson Fury’s WBC world heavyweight title.
An unknown sage said “Second chances are not given to make things right but are given to prove that we could be better even after a fall”.
Search boxing’s archives and you will find ample evidence that many famous names seeking retribution failed miserably and Whyte could be among those who received a nasty attack of deja vu.
Floyd Patterson was perhaps the most ignominious failure in a return encounter when he tried to get his world heavyweight crown back from Sonny Liston, in Las Vegas, 57 years ago.
Liston, a one-time Mafia debt-collector, took just 126 seconds of the first round to flatten Patterson to relieve him of the championship.
Patterson felt so ashamed and humiliated he left the Chicago arena wearing dark glasses and a false beard to wear on the journey back to New York in the hope that he wouldn’t be recognised.
Sonny having worked for the Mob and with his prison record for violence was a sinister and scary character. Compared to him Mike Tyson was as menacing as a tooth fairy.
Most read in Boxing
Yet Patterson was convinced he would make history by becoming the first man to win back the richest prize in sport so he went after Liston again in Las Vegas ten months later.
Liston swatted him away like he was an irritating fly and Patterson was hammered to another opening round embarrassment.
His only consolation was he had lasted four seconds longer than the first time.
The eccentric Floyd didn’t try to hide on that occasion and to the bewilderment of the hard-bitten American sportswriters told them: “When you’re knocked down with a good shot you don’t feel pain. It’s a very lovable feeling. It’s like floating.”
The most glaring case of a return going notoriously wrong was Tyson’s attempt to wipe out the memory of being knocked out in the 11th round when he defended against Evander Holyfield, in Las Vegas.
Eight months later in the same ring Tyson, who looked like getting another bashing from the Real Deal, went berserk and chewed off the top of Holyfield’s right ear and then tried to do the same thing to the left one and was disqualified.
Veteran Jersey Joe Walcott, who won the heavyweight title at his fourth attempt, defended against Rocky Marciano and was way ahead on the judges scorecards before Rocky KO’d him in the 13th round with his dynamite right hand he called his Susie Q.
Walcott, because he was winning so easily, thought he could outbox Marciano again.
Eight months later Susie Q took just 2min 26secs to put an end to Jersey Joe’s wonderful 23 year career.
Back in the Roaring 20’s Jack Dempsey thought he could avenge Gene Tunney’s Philadelphia points win over him, only to be outpointed once more when they met in Chicago, 12 months later.
Remarkably a total of 225,700 fans saw those two open-air battles.
Much nearer home George Groves, who had screamed “Robbery” when stopped in nine rounds by Carl Froch in Manchester, fared even worse five months later when Carl knocked him out in the eighth, in front of an 80,000 Wembley Stadium crowd.
The most tragic return of all was the night Michael Watson almost succeeded in removing the memory of his highly controversial points loss to Chris Eubank in their WBO world middleweight title in June 1991.
They went at it again three months later with Watson being stopped 29 secs into the 12th and last round which resulted in Michael being severely brain-damaged.
Whyte has already said despite what happened a few weeks ago he isn’t going to change his tactics. But he must be made aware where boxing is concerned, lightning can strike twice .