“All those guys. I want to fight them,” Whyte said, referring to Zhang, among others. “But there are no talks. No one has been in contact.”
What he wants and what actually happens are two different things. He is focused on staying active.
“I would love to fight three times this year,” Dillian said. “If it’s not a comeback fight, I’ll just go right back in. I don’t care.”
He pointed to recent inactivity as a problem, describing long breaks between fights as something that had stalled his run. It’s Whyte’s fault for not staying active, as he could have easily kept fighting instead of sitting on the sidelines after wins over lower-tier fighters Jermaine Franklin, Christian Hammer and Ebenezer Tetteh.
“The last few years I haven’t really been fighting. One hard fight, then six months, eight months, a year. It’s not good,” Whyte said.
The loss to Itauma did not change his outlook. He saw it as part of the sport rather than a moment that required a careful reconstruction.
“A loss to me is nothing. I’ve lost my whole life, and I always come back,” Dillian said. “Caught early and that’s it.”
Whyte looked poor to Moses in that loss, hesitant and unwilling to throw before being stopped in the opening round. He remains popular in the UK, but knockout defeats to Itauma and Tyson Fury have reduced his standing. The opponents linked to big paydays are not currently available to him.
Zhang, 42, remains a name he is willing to face, but there is no sign of movement after that fight.
Whyte has already made significant money and is now chasing another payday against the best name he can realistically land. His mention of Zhilei Zhang and Deontay Wilder makes that clear. They are still famous heavyweights, but not at the very top. The biggest names are out of reach, so he targets opponents who still carry value without the same obstacles.
