By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight talent Dillian Whyte (14-0, 11 KOs) has now been added to the September 12th fight card headlined by #2 WBC heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua vs. Gary Cornish at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn recently added the hard hitting 27-year-old Whyte to the card to help build up a fight between Joshua and Whyte for November or December. Having Whyte on the card will attract interest in the Joshua vs. Whyte fight as long as both guys win and look good in doing so.
Whyte is going to be busy. He’s got a fight next month on August 1st against an opponent still to be determined at the Craven Park Stadium in Hull, UK. As long as Whyte gets out of that fight without suffering any injuries, he’ll be ready to go in September to fight on the highly visible Joshua-Cornish card at the O2 Arena.
“The Dillian Whyte fight we were looking at for September 12th, but he’s coming back from an injury. He’ll actually box on that card as well,” Hearn said to IFL TV about Whyte fighting on the Joshua-Cornish card on 9/12. “Joshua-Cornish will headline. A big show on September 12th. Joshua is now main event on his own, then move forward and fight Dillian Whyte for the British and Commonwealth title.”
In some ways, Joshua could be in the same position as David Price is in terms of having never faced anyone good during his career, and now on the verge of facing someone who can punch back with major power in facing Dillian Whyte later this year. Like Price, Joshua has fought basically scrubs since he turned pro in 2013. He’s been in with fighters that haven’t even attempted to throw anything back at him. As such, Joshua has looked as good as Price did before he finally took a step up in class in facing Tony Thompson in 2013.
We’ve heard the rumors how Price hurt Joshua in their sparring session with him nailing Joshua and putting him on the canvas. The question is will Joshua be reduced to a pile of jelly on the canvas when he gets inside the ring with the real thing later this year when he faces Whyte? Joshua was getting belted left and right by Whyte in their fight in 2009 in losing to him.
It was similar in some ways to the Price-Teper fight in the way that Whyte was able to easily get inside Joshua’s punching range to hurt him with hooks to the head. I don’t think anything has changed with Joshua’s brain in terms of him being able to take Whyte’s power.
Joshua has put on muscle weight, but that’s not going to help his head handle the impact of Whyte’s hard shots. If anything, Joshua might hit the canvas more frequently in their rematch than he did in their first fight because Whyte is likely hitting with more power now than he was in the past. He’s older and bigger now than he was when he had Joshua on the canvas in 2009.
Is Joshua the next David Price 2.0? We’re going to find out when he gets inside the ring with Whyte this year. If Joshua loses the fight to Whyte, the perfect comeback fight for Joshua would be against Price. Both guys’ careers in shambles and badly in need of rebuilding.
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