Wladimir to attend Joshua-Whyte fight

By Boxing News - 09/21/2015 - Comments

wladimirBy Scott Gilfoid: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko says he may come to England on December 12th to watch the grudge match between unbeaten heavyweights Anthony Joshua (14-0, 14 KOs) and Dillian Whyte (16-0, 13 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London.

Wladimir thinks it’s a great match-up between these two fighters, and he thinks it’ll be really entertaining to watch. Wladimir says he rarely goes to see fights live, but in this case he’s going to make an exception to come over and watch it take place.

While Wladimir, 39, probably won’t admit it, he’s likely coming over to watch Joshua and Whyte fight for personal reasons. He may wind up facing the winner of the fight in 2016 or 2017.

Joshua is ranked #2 by the WBC right now, and if he keeps winning like he’s been doing, he’ll be on a direct collision course with Klitschko. As such, it makes sense for Wladimir to scout out Joshua and Whyte to see what they look close up at ringside.

Wladimir would obviously get seats as close as possible to the action to size up the two big British heavyweights so he can gauge how he’ll do against either of them.

“I know both the fighters since they were in the training camp,” Klitschko said via skysports.com. “I didn’t know that they fought as amateurs and I know there is a lot of energy and dislike of each other before the fight. It makes people want to watch it.”

Whyte defeated Joshua in the amateur ranks in 2009. Joshua was able to go on and win a controversial gold medal in the 2012 Olympics in London in front of a pro-Joshua crowd. Whyte didn’t go to the Olympics, and for that reason his pro career hasn’t had the same kind of hype behind it that Joshua’s has had. But Whyte clearly is someone who would have done very well had he taken part in the Olympics. I could see Whyte winning a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics, and possibly doing it without the controversy that we saw from Joshua’s four fights.

“I’m not going to the fights a lot but that fight, I might make time and come over. It’s going to be interesting and entertaining,” Wladimir said.

The Whyte vs. Joshua fight is a tossup. If Whyte is 100% healthy for the fight, he’s going to be very, very hard for Joshua to beat because he’s got a huge left hook and a great right hand. Joshua doesn’t have the same kind of punching power as Whyte, and he doesn’t appear to have the same chin as well.

If Whyte is to stand and trade with Joshua on December 12th, then I see Whyte scoring a knock out at some point after wearing the 6’6”, 250lb Joshua out.

Wladimir had both Whyte and Joshua in training camp in the past, and he came away being impressed by both. Wladimir raves about Joshua, and sees him as a future world champion. Of course, Joshua might not be able to get past Whyte though to fulfil the potential that Wladimir sees in him. Whyte is like kryptonite to Joshua, and he could very well expose him for a second time when he gets him in the ring on December 12th.



Comments are closed.