By Tim Royner: Anthony Joshua is picking former heavyweight world title challenger Dereck Chisora to defeat Dillian Whyte this Saturday on December 22 in their long awaited rematch at the O2 Arena in London, England. Joshua doesn’t have much of a reason for why he’s picking the 34-year-old Chisora to win this fight other than he just wants to see him get the ‘W’, and that he views Whyte as an “enemy.”
It’s common knowledge that if Whyte (24-1, 17 kOs) beats Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs) on Saturday, the next stop for ‘The Body Snatcher’ will be Wembley Stadium in London, England on April 13 for the Joshua rematch.
For Joshua, Chisora can remove a painful thorn from his foot if he can beat Whyte on Saturday, since that would free the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion from having to face him in a rematch. Whyte staggered Joshua with a left hook in the 2nd round before blowing out his shoulder in their fight in December 2015. No one knows what would have happened if Whyte’s left shoulder had held up for the entire contest. Maybe he would have beaten Joshua? Whyte has had surgery since then on his shoulder. His power is back to some extent with his left hand, but not to where it was before his injury. Whyte still hits hard enough with his left hand to give Joshua problems if he can land it on the button like he did last time they fought.
“I think Derek is going to whoop Dillian. I want him to,” Joshua said to skysports.com. “I want Chisora to win. I don’t want too much good for Dillian because he’s an enemy of mine. But I want Dillian to win as well, so we can have our rematch.”
Chisora has a chance to get the Joshua fight on April 13 if he beats Whyte. It’s not a guarantee that Chisora will get the fight against AJ on that date, as Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn hasn’t been saying that both guys have a shot at earning the Joshua date next April. Between those two, the only one that Hearn has been talking about getting the Joshua fight in April is the 30-year-old Whyte. He’s the bigger draw, and he has a win over Joshua from when the two were amateurs. Whyte knocked Joshua down, and pretty well dominated him for the entire fight with his then healthy left shoulder. Joshua was getting clipped repeatedly by Whyte in that fight.
Hearn will have Oleksander Usyk and Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller on hand this Saturday night to sit in the audience for the Whyte vs. Chisora 2 fight. You can bet that there will be plenty of questions asked of them about potentially taking the Joshua fight on April 13. Hearn would likely love the idea of Usyk (16-0, 12 KOs) taking the fight with Joshua in April if he were so inclined. Unfortunately for Hearn, Usyk isn’t quite certain that he wants to fight at heavyweight right now. He’s still interested in hanging around the cruiserweight division to exhaust all the possible options for important fights in that weight class before he moves up to heavyweight. One fight that Usyk would like is against former two division world champion Andre ‘SOG’ Ward, who is currently retired. Hearn has the power to lure Ward, 34, out of retirement if he makes him a big enough offer to fight Usyk. But that would be a move that would work against Hearn’s best interests, since he wants Usyk to fight Joshua. That’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Usyk vs. Ward is small stuff compared to the money that can be made in a fight between Joshua and Usyk.
Joshua thinks the Whyte-Chisora 2 rematch could be better than the first fight in 2016, which was a war from start to finish that was won by Whyte by a controversial 12 round split decision. Joshua is betting that the boxing skills Chisora and Whyte will display in the rematch on Saturday will be better than what we saw in 2016. For Whyte, it’s possible. He’s using his jab a lot more than he did in 2016. That’s out of necessity, since his once dangerous left hook hasn’t been the same since he underwent shoulder surgery. Joshua expects Whyte and Chisora to be more cautious than they did the first time. He could be right, but for a different reason.
Chisora and Whyte will likely be cautious this time around, considering that both of them gassed out numerous times the last time they fought. They’re not likely going to want to expend that kind of effort if they think it’ll only end with them emptying their tanks. Moreover, Whyte was hurt a number of times by Chisora when he chose to punch with him. After tasting the canvas in his last fight against former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Joseph Parker last July, Whyte will likely want to keep from getting hit hard by Chisora. There’s too much on the line for this fight, and his chin might not be the same after his fight with Parker. Whyte was dropped hard in the 12th round, and he was out on his feet as the fight ended. If this was an old fashioned 15 round fight, it’s safe to say that Whyte would have been stopped in the 13th round. He was done at the end of the 12th. Whyte needs to hope that Chisora doesn’t start in where Parker left off in the 1st round. If Chisora treats the rematch with whyte like it’s the 13th round from the get go, we could see Dillian knocked out straightaway.
Joshua believes the Whyte vs. Chisora 2 fight will be a technical battle. That’s hard to believe. Whyte was roughing up Parker, and fouling a lot in that fight. The contest was anything but technical from Whyte’s end. He was throwing rabbit punches, shoving, and head ramming. It’s fortunate for Whyte that he wasn’t penalized a number of times by the referee Ian John Lewis. The referee played a part in Whyte winning the fight by giving him credit for a knockdown in the 2nd round, which was in reality a head-butt that knocked Parker down. With that kind of a referee, Whyte might be able to rough up Chisora enough to win. As far as Joshua predicting a technical fight, he’s a million miles away with that prediction. It makes you wonder if Joshua has actually been watching Whyte’s recent fights for him to make that kind of comment. Chisora throws a lot of rabbit punches too, and he likes to stick his head into the chest of his opponents. Sometimes Chisora’s head rams into the head of his opponents. As a result, Chisora is anything but technical.
We’re likely going to see another war on Saturday with Whyte and Chisora throwing shots with everything on it, hoping that they can score a fast knockout to please the boxing fans that will be showing up to see them perform at the O2 Arena in London.
Whyte vs. Chisora 2 will be shown LIVE on Sky Box Office this Saturday. On the undercard, World Boxing Council flyweight champion Cristofer Rosales will be defending against Charlie Edwards. Joshua Buatsi faces Renold Quinlan for the WBA international light-heavyweight title. Former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price faces journeyman Tom Little in a crucial fight. This is arguably the last chance saloon for the 6’8″ Price. He cannot afford to lose this fight. Ryan Walsh faces Reece Bellotti for the British featherweight strap.