By Scott Gilfoid: Frank Warren says he doubts that Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder will be fighting Anthony Joshua on April 13 in his next fight at Wembley Stadium. Warren, who promotes Fury, thinks that Matchroom Boxing fighter Dillian Whyte is going to be Joshua’s opponent on April 13, which is what many boxing fans believe as well.
(Photo credit Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME)
The winner of the Wilder vs. Fury fight on December 1 should be the next opponent for Joshua in April, but given that Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn and AJ are both saying that they don’t want to wait until the Wilder-Fury fight takes place to have their April 13th opponent picked out, it seems obvious that Dillian Whyte is going to be the one that faces Joshua next.
“They’ve got that date booked at Wembley for Dillian Whyte, because like I said to you at the time, they were going to fight [Alexander] Povetkin all along. They’re going to fight Dillian Whyte. That’s where they’re at,” Warren said to Fighthub.
That’ll be so disappointing if Warren turns out to be correct about Joshua fighting Whyte next, but he was right about the Joshua-Povetkin fight, so you have to see it as coming events having cast their shadows before. Unfortunately, it’s becoming pretty easy to predict who Joshua will fight nowadays. Anyone not named Deontay Wilder. The thing is, the boxing public doesn’t want to see a tired old retread fight between Joshua and Whyte. I mean, Joshua already knocked Whyte out in 7th round in 2015 in a one-sided fight. Whyte’s matches since then have mostly been against terrible opposition aside from his fights against Joseph Parker and Dereck Chisora, which he should have lost with good judging and good referees. Whyte hasn’t done anything to earn a rematch with Joshua in the last three years. Whyte turned down the one opportunity he had to earn a fight against Joshua or Wilder by rejecting a fight against Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz.
“I don’t think [Joshua Will fight Fury or Wilder in April],” Warren said. “I don’t think so at all. I think they’ve got in their head they’re fighting Dillian Whyte and that’s all they’re going to go with. That’s it.”
The fight between Joshua and Wilder will likely happen at some point, but not in April. Fury has a better chance of fighting Joshua in 2019 than Wilder, because AJ has already said that he’ll still fight him even if he loses to Wilder. Hearn wants the fight with Fury as well for Joshua. It’s likely that Joshua will fight Whyte in April and then Fury in the second half of the year. It probably didn’t make Hearn too happy to see Fury agreeing to fight Wilder, because it would have been a huge fight if Joshua had fought Tyson while he was still unbeaten. Joshua would be the one beating Fury for the first time rather than Wilder. The worst thing that could happen to Joshua is if Wilder and Fury fight two to three times. It would not only tie Fury down, but it could give him two losses. There won’t be much interest from UK boxing fans in a Joshua vs. Fury fight if Tyson is coming off of two defeats at the hands of Wilder.
