Dillian Whyte’s trainers Xavier Miller and Harold Knight have spoken to proboxing-fans.com to give their final assessment ahead of the Brit’s crunch rematch with Alexander Povetkin tonight.
Whyte looks to gain revenge against Povetkin in Gibraltar, who shattered his hopes of an immediate world title shot with a stunning fifth round knockout last August to become WBC interim heavyweight champion.
The 32-year-old, who landed two fourth round knockdowns prior to succumbing to a huge uppercut in the following round, added former Lennox Lewis co-trainer Knight to his coaching staff to work alongside head coach, Miller who took the reins from Mark Tibbs for the last fight.
Speaking to proboxing-fans.com on Friday, both men were confident that ‘The Body Snatcher’ would use his ring IQ to dismantle the Russian and claim the WBC interim heavyweight title.
“He’s going to out-think Povetkin,” Knight said.
“He’s not going to go out there and be reckless or anything like that, but once again you’re going to see the IQ, the IQ of what Dillian can really do.”
“Dillian has a very, very high IQ,” Miller added.
“The things that Dillian’s doing now he’s done them before, he just needed reminding.
“He’s a very, very good fighter and that’s why he is where he is in the sport, sometimes you just need little reminders here and there.
“But its all come together at the right time and we’re very confident.”
Defeat for Whyte in August ended an 11-fight winning streak since his 2015 loss to Anthony Joshua.
The rematch with his Russian counterpart was set to take place in November, however the 41-year-old tested positive for Covid-19, whilst a March 6 date was also postponed due to travel restrictions from Whyte’s training base in Portugal.
After such a devastating knockout, there has been some suggestions that Whyte could be ‘gun shy’ in the second meeting, a notion that the Brixton man rejected earlier this week and his coaches have also rubbished remarks.
“Well they don’t know him,” Miller replied when asked about the suggestions.
“To make a comment like that means that you don’t know him.
“Dillian’s come back from a loss before and as you saw as soon as that [first] fight finished he went straight up to [promoter] Eddie [Hearn] and said ‘I need the rematch’.
“You don’t need anymore signs, signals. He’s built different, he’s a real one.”
“A gunslinger never get shy of shooting his gun,” Knight added.
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“If anything he’s going to shoot it even more, so that’s rubbish.
“They’ll see. As a matter of fact, a lot of people are going to be surprised at some of the weapons that Dillian is going to be using.”
Povetkin vs Whyte II is live on Sky Sports Box Office in the UK and Ireland and in over 200 countries worldwide.
Watch the full interview with Xavier Miller and Harold Knight below:
