Dillian Whyte knocked out his opponent with a punch in just 13 seconds of his only mixed martial arts fight.
Ahead of his highly anticipated fight with Tyson Fury for the WBC heavyweight championship this Saturday, we look at Dillian Whyte’s origins in combat sports and revisit his only fight in MMA. Whyte started out as a professional kickboxer and became the two-time British heavyweight champion, including the BIKMA British super-heavyweight title and the European K1 belt.
Before transitioning to MMA, he was ranked number one for five years in a row in his weight class (95kg+) and only suffered one loss out of his 21 matches in the ring. At 19 years old, Whyte was on the undercard for James McSweeney vs Neil Grove when he squared off against Mark Stroud in his solitary MMA bout.
He went on to knock his opponent out cold in just 13 seconds with an overhand right to the chin.
It took Dillian Whyte just 12 seconds to iron out his opponent on his MMA debut
One word…
POWER
@DillianWhyte pic.twitter.com/vebHfuRz1N
— Oddschanger (@Oddschanger) May 3, 2020
With an impressive debut in the sport, Whyte never returned for another fight as he switched over to boxing. In 2020, he claimed that he could knock out any top heavyweights in the UFC. He had even set up a surprise press conference with Francis Ngannou in hopes of setting up a mega-crossover fight but nothing resulted from the affair since.
Eddie Hearn backs Dillian Whyte to knock out Tyson Fury
Dillian Whyte has established his name as the world’s fifth-best ranked active heavyweight boxer by The Ring Magazine. ‘The Body Snatcher’ has also been ranked among BoxRec’s top ten heavyweights since 2016 with a knockout percentage of 68%.
Boxing promoter and chairman of Matchroom Sport Eddie Hearn has backed Dillian Whyte to potentially knock out Tyson Fury in their upcoming fight this Saturday. While he acknowledged The Gypsy King’s abilities, he stated his support for Whyte.
“On paper right now, Tyson Fury is the best heavyweight in the world, but Dillian Whyte can beat anybody on his day. Sometimes when you look at a fight and you say, ‘How can they win?’ He can knock Tyson Fury out.
“Dillian Whyte has the power one-punch power, and he’s a fantastic body puncher as well to knock someone out.
“Any heavyweight in the division, he has the power to knock them out.”