Heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte is mentally focused on getting revenge when he faces Alexander Povetkin in a rematch later this year.
Last month, at Matchroom’s Fight Camp in Brentwood, Whyte was knocked out cold by Povetkin in the fifth round of their contest.
At the time of the knockout, Whyte was way up on the cards after dropping Povetkin twice in the fourth round.
But Povetkin, who himself appeared to be on the verge on getting stopped, landed a vicious uppercut that sent Whyte down and out.
Due to the unexpected loss, Whyte was stripped of his status as the WBC’s mandatory challenger and he also lost the WBC’s interim-title.
Whyte had an immediate rematch clause and quickly exercised his right to a second meeting.
“I just remember falling and the referee saying ‘six, seven.’ And then after, tried to get up, and the referee was saying ‘nah, nah, nah, it’s a heavy knockdown’.. blah, blah, blah. I was alright, I wasn’t like sparko, sparko. I can’t say like ‘Oh I didn’t get dropped.’ It was a great shot to the point of the chin, and I got dropped. But I was all right. I got up straight after, I was cool,” Whyte told BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat.
“And then straight after went to the changing room, Eddie [Hearn] was doing his interview, and I said ‘yeah, let’s get the rematch, let’s do it.'”
More than anything else, Whyte blames himself for making the one mistake that led to the shocking loss.
“I was annoyed at myself. I was annoyed at myself because I threw the fight away. Povetkin didn’t beat me up or beat the fight out of me. I threw the fight away. So I was a bit annoyed at myself obviously. No one’s perfect, we all make mistakes, and I was a bit annoyed that I made silly mistakes at this stage of my career,” Whyte said.