By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) says he’s not looking past his opponent Gary Cornish (21-0, 12 KOs) this Saturday towards a more dangerous fight against Dillian Whyte (15-0, 12 KOs) on December 12th.
Joshua says his concentration is completely on the task at hand in trying to defeat the 28-year-old Cornish to capture the vacant Commonwealth heavyweight title at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Whyte is fighting on the undercard against Brian Minto (41-9, 26 KOs).
It’s got to be difficult for Joshua to forget about the Whyte fight because he’ll be seeing him on his card on Saturday. Whyte is someone who already beat Joshua in a dominating fashion six years ago in the amateur ranks. Whyte showed that he had Joshua’s number and knew how to beat him, which is why it’s hard to believe Joshua when he says he’s not worried about the fight.
“When Gary Cornish is throwing haymakers my mind isn’t going to be drifting off to what I’m going to be doing in December,” Joshua said to skysports.com. “People like [Whyte] come and go. I’m not the first person it’s happened to in the history of boxing. It’s part of the sport, and I’ve got to keep my professional hat on and deal with business.”
No, Joshua isn’t the first person to lose to Whyte, and obviously he won’t be the last to lose to him either. But I still don’t believe Joshua when he says he’ll be focusing on Cornish rather than Whyte. But when Joshua says he won’t be thinking about Whyte when he’s in the ring with Cornish, I think he’s being disingenuous.
@DillianWhyte & Brian Minto head to head #HeavyDuty #BoxingHeads pic.twitter.com/IgIpIzotuL
— #BoxingHeads (@DavyTrengove) September 10, 2015
How can he not be thinking about Whyte, because the guy beat him soundly in 2009, and he’s got him fighting on the same card on Saturday night? All the big lofty dreams that Joshua has about getting a fight against the likes of Wladimir Klitschko or Tyson Fury next year could go up in smoke if Whyte beats him on December 12th.
Whyte recently said that he thinks that Joshua is little more than a “Fake”, because he thinks the image that he puts out isn’t who he really is.
Whyte and Minto will be fighting for the vacant WBC International Silver heavyweight title on the undercard of the Joshua-Cornish fight. It’s just a trinket of a title, as is the Commonwealth title. Whyte and Joshua will be fighting for the British heavyweight title in December.
Whyte, 6’4”, towered over the much smaller 5’11” Minto in a meeting of the two heavyweights. It’s going to be very difficult for Minto to make up for his lack of height and reach in this fight. Minto really should be fighting at cruiserweight rather than at heavyweight. He’s a good fighter, but he lacks the big size to be in with someone as huge and as talented as Whyte. Whyte was supposed to be fighting Dominic Guinn, but he pulled out of the fight for unknown reasons. It’s perhaps a good thing for the 40-year-old Guinn, because he would have surely lost to Whyte.
Comments are closed.