Boxing news: Dillian Whyte vows to ‘maul’ Oleksandr Usyk when he steps up to heavyweight
The undefeated Ukrainian cemented his position as the best cruiserweight in the world by demolishing Tony Bellew with a vicious KO
Dillian Whyte has promised to dethrone undisputed cruiserweight king Oleksandr Usyk when the Ukrainian moves up to heavyweight.
Whyte was in attendance of the Manchester Arena to see the undefeated Usyk emphatically stop Tony Bellew in their world title fight on Saturday night.
After showing great heart, Bellew was eventually worn down and worked out by the southpaw, who landed a looping left hook on the button to end the fight in the eighth.
But the 'Bodysnatcher' was left unconvinced by the performance and believes he would beat the pound-for-pound king, who harbours ambitions of a fight with reigning heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Usyk will struggle at heavyweight," he exclusively told
"Heavyweights are bigger and stronger guys and they will manhandle him. If I fought him I wouldn't do what Tony Bellew was doing, I'd be charging at him all around the ring.
"He's not going to drop me with one punch. I would maul him all night long. I would fight him in a very uncomfortable zone for him.
"If it's a big fight and he wants it, he can have it. I'm game. If Usyk wants it he can have it. I'm the 'Can Man', like I say all the time. If you're a top-10 fighter, you can have it.
"I can never see him shock a real heavyweight, maybe his movement to some lazy heavyweight, but as a heavyweight, you close it down, nullify it, and beat him up, rough him up.
"You will out-weight him by two or three stones, so weigh him down, push him around. He didn't like a few things Bellew did, like hit him on the side of the head, and he was complaining, so I saw a few signs there that he doesn't like it rough."
Whyte was sat just a few feet away from rival Dereck Chisora, whom he will fight once more on December 22.
Should he produce a repeat performance against the 34-year-old, a world title fight or certainly a big pay-per-view event against a fighter of Usyk's stature would surely come next.
And the brash Brit knows exactly what he will do to beat the Ukrainian.
"It was a great performance from Bellew but an even greater performance from Usyk," he added.
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"I had Bellew winning the first four rounds easily but when you fight guys like that [Usyk], they're annoying. They keep moving around, catching you with annoying little punches that just break your concentration over time.
"Bellew fought better than people thought he would. It was strange, he started to back off, maybe his nose got broken or something, or his jaw or something, but it's too easy just sitting here saying he should've done this or that.
"Personally though I thought Bellew should've roughed him up more. Maybe he was trying to prove a point by out-boxing a boxer."