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Steve KimESPN
Matchroom Sports on Friday announced a series of fights that will take place in an outdoor setting at Matchroom’s headquarters in Brentwood, England.
Matchroom’s “Fight Camp” begins Aug. 1 and is highlighted by a heavyweight clash between Dillian Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) and Alexander Povetkin (35-2-1, 24 KOs) on Aug. 22.
On Aug. 1, Sam Eggington (28-6, 17 KOs) takes on Ted Cheeseman (15-2-1, 9 KOs) in the main event of the first installment of this series in a junior middleweight battle, and James Tennyson (26-3, 22 KOs) takes on Gavin Gwynne (12-1, 2 KOs) for the vacant British Lightweight title.
The main event on Aug. 7 is a bout between WBC junior lightweight titlist Terri Harper (10-0, 5 KOs) and Natasha Jonas (9-1, 7 KOs). In the co-main event, Chris Billam-Smith (10-1, 9 KOs) defends his cruiserweight Commonwealth title against undefeated Nathan Thorley (14-0, 6 KOs), and junior middleweight sensation Anthony Fowler (12-1, 9 KOs) gets his second fight of the year against Adam Harper (9-1).
Felix Cash (12-0, 8 KOs) puts his Commonwealth middleweight title on the line against Jason Welborn (24-8, 7 KOs) in the main event on Aug. 14, and Zelfa Barrett (23-1, 14 KOs) meets Eric Donovan (12-0, 7 KOs) in the co-main.
Irish sensation Katie Taylor (15-0, 6 KOs) will defend her undisputed lightweight championship against an opponent to be named on the Whyte-Povetkin undercard.
Whyte is the WBC interim heavyweight titlist and promoter Eddie Hearn wants to get him a shot at the full title after the Povetkin bout. The WBC champion is Tyson Fury, who is scheduled to face Deontay Wilder for the third time in the fall.
“Dillian Whyte has been mandatory challenger for literally hundreds of days, and I feel like it’s been outrageous what’s happened to him,” Eddie Hearn, group managing director of Matchroom Sport, told ESPN.
There is talk of the WBC naming Fury its “franchise champion” and elevating Whyte to champion.
But that’s not the way Hearn or Whyte want it.
“Dillian Whyte doesn’t want to be given a world title from the WBC — he wants to earn it,” Hearn said.
Last year the WBC elevated its lightweight champion, Vasiliy Lomachenko, to “franchise champion,” which meant that Devin Haney won the WBC title without ever really fighting for their belt.
“Dillian wants to fight Tyson Fury and he wants to become a world champion that way,” Hearn said. “He doesn’t want to get an email saying, ‘Congratulations, you’re upgraded to world champion.'”
Povetkin (35-2-1, 24 KOs) would be another solid name on the resume of Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs), whose lone loss came against unified titleholder Anthony Joshua in 2015. Hearn said Whyte has done more than enough to earn a title shot.
“Enough is enough now, he’s beaten [Robert] Helenius, [Dereck] Chisora, [Joseph] Parker; he’s beaten [Oscar] Rivas, he’s beaten Chisora, again, and now he goes into Alexander Povetkin. He’s had a hell of a run,” Hearn said.