By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten Dillian Whyte (16-0, 13 KOs) is ready to beat his nemesis Commonwealth heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (14-0, 14 KOs) for the second time next month when the two of them go at it for the vacant British heavyweight strap on December 12th at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Whyte, 27, figures that his punching power is the equal of the 6’6”, 250lb Joshua despite him being shorter than his opponent. Whyte feels that he’ll have a chance of stopping him when he connects with one of his big shots on the button, which he will likely do at some point in the fight.
Whyte already showed that he could beat Joshua in the past when the two of them were amateurs in 2009, and now he wants to repeat that fete at the pro level. What we saw in their fight six years ago was that Whyte was able to hurt Joshua when he connected with his left hooks and right hands.
For his part, Joshua’s punches had no effect on Whyte. This made it possible for Whyte to nail Joshua at will without having to worry about the punches coming back.
“This is someone that I’ve beaten before and I’m just as powerful as him – if not more powerful. We’ve both improved. I honestly believed that I will beat him again,” Whyte said to skysports.com. “I’m deep in his mind and in his soul and I’ll beat him again on December 12.”
I totally agree with Whyte. I think he’s going to beat Joshua for a second time. Joshua isn’t the fighter that he was in 2009. He was never fast to begin with, but with him putting on 30 pounds of muscle since their first fight six years ago, I think it’s going to be a lot easier for Whyte to beat him this time because Joshua looks so much slower than he was in the past.
Of course, it makes sense for a fighter to slow down considerably when they put in 30 pounds of muscle in such a short period of time. If Joshua were a pro football player in the NFL, then the muscle weight he put on would be useful for him to play a lineman position where he has to push and slam into his opponents. But in boxing, the sport depends on hand speed and stamina, not bulk.
For that reason, I think Joshua’s rapid weight gain has worked against him by slowing him down and making him more robotic than he already was. The thing is Joshua is only 26. You have to figure that he’ll continue to add more muscle to his frame as he gets older.
If he bulks up to 260 or even 280, there’s no way I can see him having success at the upper levels of the sport because he’ll be too slow. I think it’s probable that Joshua will continue to add muscle weight as he ages, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s 270 within a couple of years.
“I’m not one of the old men he’s fought in his previous fights. What’s their average age? 38 or 39 or something?” Whyte said about the older fighters that Joshua has built much of his resume against.
Here are the ages of some of Joshua’s opponents:
Kevin Johnson – 36
Raphael Zumbano Love – 34
Jason Gavern – 38
Michael Sprott – 40
Denis Bakhtov – 35
Matt Skelton – 38
Konstantin Airich – 36
Matt Legg – 39
Hector Alfredo Avila – 40
Hrvoje Kisicek – 35
Paul Butlin – 39
Emanuele Leo – 34
The question is has Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn purposefully selected older fighters for Joshua to look better than he should look or was this just a mere coincidence that 10 of Joshua’s 14 opponents were 35 or older.
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