If the WBC’s recent ruling regarding the purse split for their mandated heavyweight championship match moves Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte in different directions, Otto Wallin would fight either of those heavyweights next.

Wallin pushed Fury in a 12-round fight Fury won by unanimous decision in September 2019 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Swedish southpaw was scheduled to fight Whyte October 30 in London, but Whyte withdrew from a main event DAZN was supposed to stream from O2 Arena the previous week due to a shoulder injury.

Wallin (22-1, 14 KOs, 1 NC) and his handlers have questioned the validity of Whyte’s shoulder injury. There has been no attempt by Whyte’s promotional partner, Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn, to reschedule Whyte-Wallin because Whyte wanted to move forward with the WBC heavyweight title shot that the London-based boxer contends is long overdue.

The 31-year-old Wallin, meanwhile, has remained in the gym in hopes of landing an opportunity to face Fury or Whyte.

“Otto Wallin is willing and ready to fight Tyson Fury and he’s willing and ready to fight Dillian Whyte,” Dmitriy Salita, Wallin’s promoter, told BoxingScene.com. “Otto Wallin is a different fighter, a much more improved fighter, since he fought Tyson Fury the first time, as is Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury has improved leaps and bounds with ‘Sugar Hill.’ And I think that it’ll be a very good, entertaining rematch – a fight that truly deserves a rematch. That fight deserves a rematch and the fight will Dillian Whyte deserves a redo.”

The WBC informed the teams of Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) and Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) recently that there will be an 80-20 purse split for their mandated match. The WBC’s typical purse split for champions and challengers in obligatory bouts is 70-30, but Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., Fury’s co-promoter, requested an 80-20 split for Fury-Whyte at the WBC’s annual convention in mid-November in Mexico City.

Whyte’s team has officially disputed the 80-20 split. Whyte previously sued the WBC for damages because the WBC interim champion didn’t receive his mandated title shot much earlier than now.

Arum has condemned Whyte’s team for what Arum considers unreasonable purse demands – a $10 million guarantee, as opposed to the $5 million guarantee Top Rank and Frank Warren, Fury’s other co-promoter, have offered for him to challenge England’s Fury.

Whyte’s legal entanglements with the WBC won’t be resolved soon, which could lead Fury to embrace a non-title fight sometime in March. Arum mentioned former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ Andy Ruiz Jr. (34-2, 22 KOs) and Robert Helenius (31-3, 20 KOs) as potential opponents for Fury, but not Wallin.  

“On paper, Otto Wallin has landed more punches on Tyson Fury than Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder in the first fight put together,” Salita said. “Since that close and in some ways controversial fight, Otto Wallin has had two impressive victories [over Travis Kauffman and Dominic Breazeale]. He’s trained by one of the better teachers in the game, Joey Gamache, and it’s been a long-term relationship. And that’ll only add to his chances against Tyson Fury in a rematch or in a redo against Dillian Whyte.

“And I do think that if Dillian Whyte does not fight Tyson Fury, he, as a fighter, should demand to fight Otto Wallin after all that happened. There’s been lots of words and no action. So Dillian Whyte, if you’re a real fighter, in my opinion it’s, ‘Let’s line up Otto. I wanna fight Otto Wallin.’ And from a boxing fan’s perspective, I think both of those fights make a lot of sense.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.