Dillian Whyte wants Anthony Joshua fight, doubts it will happen

By Boxing News - 06/01/2015 - Comments

whyteBy Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the promoter for undefeated heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs), mentioned Dillian Whyte (14-0, 11 KOs) as a potential opponent for Joshua for either his July 18th or September 12th fight. Whyte, 27, says he’s ready to face Joshua whenever he’s ready to face him, but he doubts that the fight will happen.

Whyte believes that either Hearn or Joshua himself don’t want the fight against him after he beat Joshua in the amateurs and knocked him down.

If Hearn chooses not to match Joshua against Whyte in July or September, then you can only conclude that Hearn is worried about what could happen to his 6’6” prize. The guys that Hearn has been putting in with Joshua haven’t throwing punches at him. Hearn has been selecting fighters that have just come out and danced around until they were eventually stopped. Joshua’s last two opponents Kevin Johnson and Raphael Zumbano Love are prime examples of fighters who just came out and threw nothing back at Joshua.

“The most logical fight is against Anthony Joshua. I don’t like him and he doesn’t like me,” Whyte said to southlondon-today. “I’ve beaten him before and since then it’s been a massive problem for him. It’s a natural match-up with a good old-fashioned, blood-fuelled rivalry. I’ve told him I’ll fight him whenever.”

think Whyte won’t be selected by Hearn to face Joshua in 2015. The reason is Whyte is too different from the fodder that Hearn has been feeding Joshua. For starters, Whyte actually throws punches, and the guys that Hearn has been feeding Joshua have done little other than to stand around waiting to be knocked out. Secondly, Whyte has top rate world class punching power. That makes him dangerous because Whyte can knockout anyone in the heavyweight division if he lands his left hook and right hand. He’s got lethal punching power. It doesn’t matter than he would be giving away three inches in height to Joshua. Whyte’s power makes him dangerous for a fighter as slow and as easy to hit as Joshua is.

In looking at the Joshua-Whyte fight, Joshua was hurt on at least three occasions by Whyte, and he should have been knocked down twice in the fight, not just once. Whyte sent Joshua flying into the ropes on one occasion after nailing him with a right hand. The referee failed to call it a knockdown when it was pretty apparent that the ropes held Joshua up. What jumps out at me when watching the Joshua vs. Whyte fight was how much faster Joshua was back then compared to how he fights nowadays. Joshua was very fast of hand and foot back then, because he didn’t have all the muscle weight slowing him down. He looked no heavier than 220 when he fought Whyte, and he’s since put on close to 30 pounds. That extra muscle doesn’t seem to have increased his punching power. It just seems to have slowed him way down. I can only imagine how it would negatively affect Joshua if he were forced to fight a 10 or 12 round fight. We’re likely talking about him fighting on fumes once he gets past the 6th round.

“I think in his camp, someone wants it and someone doesn’t – either he wants it and his promoter doesn’t, or his promoter wants it but he doesn’t,” Whyte said. “It’s two up and-coming heavyweights in the same country so we have a good rivalry.”

I agree with Whyte. I think someone in Joshua’s camp doesn’t want the Whyte fight, be it Hearn or Joshua. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were both Joshua and Hearn who want no part of Whyte. He hits too hard, and he actually throws punches. He’s all wrong for Joshua when compared to the guys that Hearn has been putting in the ring with him.



Comments are closed.