Anthony Joshua: ‘I’m rooting for Dillian [to beat Fury], even though I hate him’

By Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua said in an interview on Sunday that he’s “rooting” For Dillian Whyte to defeat Tyson Fury on April 23rd.

Strangely, Joshua is advising on how to beat Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) even though he’s coming off a loss to Oleksandr Usyk and is believed to be sacking his trainer and has no clue how to beat the talented Ukrainian.

“It’s a good defense against Dillian Whyte. Dillian Whyte needs to come in and look at what Tyson Fury does and reacts to, and do the complete opposite,” said Anthony Joshua to iFL TV.

The look on Joshua’s face during the interview was like a trapped man, nervous, afraid to say the wrong thing.

“Work the body and be conditioned to go the distance,” Joshua continued about his advance for Whyte to beat Fury. “I hope Dillian trains hard and doesn’t underestimate Tyson.”

With two losses in his last four fights and his career on the brink of failure, Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) is probably the last person that Whyte needs to be giving him the advice to beat WBC heavyweight champion Fury.

It seems like only yesterday, Joshua’s career was traveling at light speed. Still, after running into two fighters that he was supposed to beat, he’s gone into the state of explosive decompression.

AJ’s losses in the last three years have left him looking shaken and deeply troubled from the horrors of what he experienced in crushing defeats to Andy Ruiz Jr and Oleksandr Usyk.

“Because this is his first [world title] shot for Dillian, I think he’ll be hungry,” said Joshua. “I mean, his tenth time fighting for a title, and he can have a little hiccup along the way.

“This is his first time fighting for a title. I’m rooting for Dillian, even though I hate him. I want to smash him one of these days. Go on, Dillian. Go all the way,” said Joshua in encouraging Whyte to beat Fury.

Why on earth would Joshua want Whyte to beat Fury if he hates him? It doesn’t make sense for Joshua to hope for Whyte to beat Fury and actively give him advice on how to accomplish that task.

The ONLY way I can understand why Joshua would be so eager to see Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) defeat Fury is because he’s not confident that he can do it himself.

I mean, Joshua already proved that he could beat Whyte, so you can understand why he might want him to take care of a tall order like him.

It doesn’t matter if Fury beats Whyte because Joshua’s career will effectively be over with anyway once he loses to Usyk again. That’s how I see it going down.

With Joshua’s enormous ego, he won’t be able to mentally handle a second defeat to IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Usyk, and he’ll hang up his gloves.

Assuming Usyk doesn’t enlist in the Ukrainian army to defend his country against Russia, he’s likely to beat Joshua in their still unscheduled rematch. The way Joshua looked today, hyper-alert, shifty-eyed, he doesn’t appear ready for a rematch with Usyk.

Is Joshua secretly hoping that Usyk will enlist in the Ukrainian army, so he doesn’t have to fight him? It wouldn’t surprise me. That would be an actual load off Joshua’s mind, and at least temporarily, it would keep his career above water.

“That fight is done obviously, but we’re going through the side offers that we had in,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social on the Joshua vs. Usyk II rematch.

“I talked to Daniel Levy at the Spurs. That would be our preferred option if the fight is in the UK.

“We would prefer the fight is in the UK, but Usyk has a revenue split in that fight, and he’s going to want to see what offers are in and where is the most money for it to be staged.

“But AJ is dialed in and ready for that fight, and hopefully next week or a week or so, we’ll be ready to announce a date,” said Hearn.

Joshua doesn’t seem like he’s ready for the rematch, which is why he should bail and go in a different direction.

Joshua needs a couple of confidence boosters to get him ready for the Usyk fight instead of going directly into it with his self-confidence entirely shot.