Heavyweight Dillian Whyte returned to the ring for the first time since his narrow win over Jermaine Franklin in November 2022 to stop Christian Hammer after three rounds in Castlebar, Ireland on Sunday night.
Whyte is now 30-3 (20 KOs), while German Hammer dropped to 27-11 (17 KOs) and Whyte was relieved to get back into action following his spell on the sidelines owing to an adverse finding in a doping test leading up to his slated rematch with Anthony Joshua last August.
Hammer started aggressively, but Whyte soon had the upper hand.
“He just quit, but what can I do?” said Whyte. “I’ve been through a lot of hell and a lot darkness so I had a lot of pent-up frustration and aggression and it’s funny, because the camp was calm, everything was calm and it had to come out at some point, that’s my nature, you know.”
Talking to Boxing Social after the bout, Whyte added: “It’s good to be back out and it’s good to get back to work. Obviously Hammer came out swinging and then the pitbull in me just bit back, then I was rushing and making stupid mistakes, but whatever.”
Whyte said he was hoping to fight as many as four times in 2024, and was open to boxing in Saudi Arabia, and to the Joshua rematch and a fight with Joe Joyce, who mentioned Whyte’s name after stopping Kash Ali a night earlier.
Whyte is licensed by the Texas Commission and last night’s show was handled by the Boxing Union Of Ireland. Whyte is not licensed by the British Boxing Board of Control, but he does not mind where he boxes in the future.
“I don’t know and I don’t care, wherever the fight is…” he replied, when asked if he might fight in the UK. “Wherever I can be busy, then I’ll go there and fight. I’m running out of time. I’m not getting any younger. I don’t know what’s next, I just want to fight Let’s see what happens.”
The 35-year-old Brixton man wants another seven or eight fights and said he would have three or four weeks at home before getting back to work with trainer Buddy McGirt and preparing to box again.
Asked about whether he felt promoters and people in boxing had stuck by him, Whyte replied: “It’s the game. I’ve got 14 dogs. That’s where I expect my loyalty from. My dogs are the only things that’s loyal to me in this life.”
Then, asked specifically about Joyce, Joshua and anyone else he might like to fight, Whyte said: “Anyone. I’ve never turned a fight down, whoever wanted it could get it.”