By Trevor McIntyre: Highly ranked Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte (23-1, 17 KOs) says he thinks heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce (4-0, 4 KO) has no punching power or defensive skills, and that he would obliterate him if the time came for the two of them to face each other.
Whyte was on hand for Joyce’s 2nd round knockout victory over Commonwealth heavyweight champion Lenroy Thomas (22-5-1, 10 KOs) last weekend on the undercard of Tony Bellew vs. David Haye at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Joyce knocked Thomas down three times in the fight. No one had ever stopped Thomas this fast previously.
Whyte, 29, is not saying he’s interested in fighting the 32-year-old Joyce. Whyte is hoping that he’ll get a rematch with IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua so that he can even the score to avenge his 7th round knockout loss from 2015.
“He was terrible. He’s got no defense and no power,” Whyte said to skysports.com. “If Joyce got in the ring with me, I would destroy him. He’s got a good engine…he leads with his head. Anyone who’s a clever fighter will clip him because his head, and his chin, are up.”
Whyte says “if Joyce got in the ring with me.” Whyte is not interested in the least in fighting Joyce, which is hard to understand. If Whyte’s promoter is only matching him against arguably shot fighters like Lucas Browne, Robert Helenius and Malcolm Tann, then why wouldn’t he want to fight Joyce? That’s a huge step up for Whyte if he takes the fight with Joyce.
It would also give Whyte a chance to get used to fighting someone the same size as Anthony Joshua, since that’s the fighter that he’s waiting to fight. Hearn plans on making an in house fight between Whyte and Joshua very soon. It won’t happen this year though, because Joshua has fights against Deontay Wilder, Alexander Povetkin and Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller ahead of him. Whyte is at the end of the line behind those three heavyweights. He’s someone that Hearn obviously wants to match against Joshua, but only after he’s exhausted all the other fights.
Joyce is hoping to get the likes of Whyte, Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller or Hughie Fury to fight him. He’s interested in fighting all three. It appears that Whyte has no interest whatsoever in fighting Joyce. If Whyte is going to be facing talented opposition while he waits for his title shot against Joshua, then he’ll have a good excuse for not fighting him. But if you look at the fighters that Whyte has been competing against since his knockout loss to Joshua, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be fighting him.
Whyte hasn’t fought any talented heavyweights that were in their prime. Whyte’s best wins in the last two years have come against Robert Helenius, Dereck Chisora, Lucas Browne and David Allen. Browne and Helenius both looked shot when Whyte fought them. They were both up there in age. Browne is 39 and Helenius is 34. Neither of them is young for their age. Whyte’s win over domestic level fighter Allen was nothing special, as he was recently beaten by Lenroy Thomas, the fighter that Joyce beat last Saturday night. Whyte’s win over Chisora in 2016 was a controversial one. That fight was at best a tie with neither guy doing enough to claim the victory. Whyte came into the fight as the A-side, so it was predictable that he would be given the nod by the judges.
Despite only having four fights as a pro under his belt, the 6’6” Joyce views himself as being “at that level” with Whyte. This is bothers Whyte, because he feels that he’s far above him. Whyte doesn’t possess the Olympic credentials that Joyce does with his silver medal in the 2016 Olympics.
Five fights ago, Whyte defeated Ian Lewison by a 10h round stoppage in his 20th fight as a pro in October 2016. Joyce recently beat Lewison in his pro debut in stopping him in the 8th round last October. What was impressive about that win was the way that Whyte used only his left hand in the fight. He wanted to practice using his left, so he worked Lewison over with jabs, left hooks and uppercuts for the entire contest to get the stoppage. Whyte needed both hands to stop Lewison in the 10th round in 2016, and the fight was hardly an easy one for him.
Whyte is promoted by Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, and Joyce is with David Haye’s Hayemaker promotions. Hearn will probably keep Whyte away from Joyce because he’s trying to build him up with showcase fights for a rematch with Joshua. All the match-making that is being done for Whyte nowadays are against fighters that have little chance of beating him. If Hearn were to allow Whyte to face Joyce, the outcome would not be guaranteed like the fighters that he’s been feeding to ‘The Body Snatcher’ since he took over as his promoter. It’s likely that the only way Joyce will ever fight Whyte is if one of them wins a world title.
I don’t think Hearn will ever put Whyte in with Joyce. It’s a bad match-up for Whyte, because he’s not a big puncher, and he’s easy to hit. Whyte used to have a good left hook, but he lost the power in that arm after suffering a shoulder injury in 2015. The power never came back for Whyte. Nowadays, Whyte’s main weapon is his jab. He uses that a lot to win his fights. He mostly slaps with both hands when he attempts to throw power shots, which is why Chisora was able to get the better of him when they fought each other in 2016. Chisora had the better power, and he was hurt Whyte several times in the fight. There were a couple of instances where it looked like Whyte was on the verge of being knocked out by Chisora.
Whyte could be facing Kubrat Pulev next in an International Boxing Federation heavyweight title eliminator. Whyte made it clear that he has no interest in fighting Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs) in the WBC ordered title eliminator. Whyte seems to prefer to fight Pulev, who is an arguably far easier fight than Ortiz. Whyte would get more respect from the boxing public if he fought Ortiz, but it would come at a high cost with him possibly getting beaten.