The planned rematch between Alexander Povetkin and Dillian Whyte, which is set to stream on DAZN and air on Sky Box Office, could possibly be facing further delay.
Originally scheduled for January, Povetkin came down with COVID and had to pull out, and even if that hadn’t happened, UK boxing shut down for the month again, anyway. The current date is March 6, but there hasn’t been a venue announced, and promoter Eddie Hearn told iFL TV there is a chance it could be delayed until March 27 due to travel and quarantine issues for Whyte.
“There is a chance it could be delayed. I don’t think it will be, the main thing is to get Dillian Whyte out of Portugal. It looks like tomorrow that may happen,” Hearn said.
“(Portugal is) in the red list, and the issue we’re having is the government won’t allow Dillian Whyte to isolate in the bubble, he has to isolate in a government hotel. That is impossible for Dillian Whyte to do. He could go to Spain, for example, and isolate there for 10 days, and then fly in on fight week. That’s what we’re putting into place at the moment. Small chance it could be pushed back (three) weeks to March 27, but that’s not the intention. It’s our intention to do everything we can to make sure March 6 stays intact.”
Hearn said we’ll likely know for sure by Saturday at the latest what the plan will be. If the fight stays on March 6, it likely will be held at Wembley’s SSE Arena, but if it moves to March 27, it could be there or Gibraltar, a location that was under consideration for March 6.
As it stands, Povetkin-Whyte 2 is really the only event of note set for March 6, and March 27 only has a Queensberry show on BT Sport, solid show with domestic title fights, but nothing that would scare off the Povetkin-Whyte organizers or audience.
