By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweights Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) and Dillian Whyte (15-0, 12 KOs) traded shots today at the final press conference in London, England to hype their separate fights on Saturday at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Everything was fine for a while when Joshua, 25, was focusing on talking about his fight against Gary Cornish (21-0, 12 KOs), but then things turned bad when Joshua switched lanes and started trashing Whyte.
This caused Whyte to start talking over Joshua, telling him that he’s going to thrash him when they meet each other in their fight on December 12th for the vacant British heavyweight title.
“God willing I’ll move on from the fight on Saturday as champion, and then me and Dillian will fight on December 12th with the British title on the line,” Joshua said. “He can have his five minutes of fame right now, and then I’ll move on in a couple of months and he’ll be forgotten about,” Joshua said.
At this point, Whyte stepped in and said “Stop being fake. Be yourself. I’ve spent time around you and this is not you. Stop fooling the people. Be yourself, you know what I’m talking about. Punk. I am going to hurt you in December. You are getting bashed up.”
Joshua then answered back with “You’re lucky to be on my under-card.”
“Fool, don’t talk rubbish,” Whyte said. “You’re getting bashed up, I don’t care. Scumbag.”
By Joshua saying that Whyte was “lucky to be on my undercard,” he was trying to show him that he was the boss, and that he had supposedly thrown him a bone by giving him the chance to get some attention. However, this obviously isn’t being brought about by Joshua. Whyte is on the undercard because of Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn, who obviously sees the value in the rivalry that the two fighters have with each other. I mean, Joshua lost to Whyte six years ago in the amateur ranks in a fight in which Joshua was put down twice by the big punching Whyte.
Sure, Joshua could insist that Whyte not be on his undercard, and Hearn would probably do what he says by kicking him off. But it would mean that two fighters would never face each other, and Joshua would have to live with his loss to Whyte for the rest of his days. It wouldn’t be a big deal for Whyte not to face Joshua again because he’s going to find success regardless of whether he gets that fight. It was Whyte who beat Joshua, not the other way around. Joshua is the one who needs to avenge his defeat.
Whyte will be facing Brian Minto (41-9, 26 KOs) this Saturday on the undercard of the Joshua-Cornish fight. The fight will give Whyte a chance to shine and upstage Joshua by beating a better heavyweight than the one he’s facing. If Whyte can upstage Joshua, it will help setup their fight on December 12th. Whyte and Minto will be fighting for the vacant WBC International Silver heavyweight title.
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