By Jack Tiernan: Derek Chisora predicts a stoppage victory for Anthony Joshua over Dillian Whyte in their rematch on August 12th at the O2 Arena in London.
Chisora sees Whyte (29-3, 19 KOs) doing well in the first three rounds, but then Joshua will take over and dominate until stopping him round the eighth round. In other words, it’ll be a replay of their first fight in December 2015.
In that fight, Whyte fought well in the first couple of rounds, staggering Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs), but then his left shoulder started giving him problems, and AJ took over to get a knockout in the seventh.
This is supposed to be a tune-up fight for Joshua, but it could turn out to be his Waterloo. Whyte isn’t someone you pick for tune-up purposes, as he’s a dangerous puncher and more of a knockout threat than Andy Ruiz. We saw what Ruiz did to Joshua.
If Joshua’s new trainer Derrick James is what he’s cracked up to be, he should be able to lead him to an easy victory over Whyte. But if this guy isn’t magical, Joshua could lose and his career will be in the dumpster.
Joshua will stop Whyte
“In the first two or three rounds, Dillian will cause a big commotion, and AJ will bite his gumshield, and by round eight or nine, Dillian gets knocked out,” said Derek Chisora to the media, predicting a victory for Anthony Joshua over Dillian Whyte on August 12th.
If it doesn’t play out the way Chisora predicts, it could end badly for Joshua. What happens if Whyte destroys Joshua? That would be a catastrophic blow to the 33-year-old AJ’s career, and it would be hard for him to explain it away.
It was bad enough that Joshua was knocked out by the chubby gatekeeper Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, who, up to that point in his career, was an underachiever heading to nowhere-ville. Getting beaten by the faded old vet, Whyte, could be the end.
“You could tell when AJ and Dillian were sitting there. There was no bitterness, no danger. They were so nice to each other,” said Chisora about today’s kick-off press conference between Joshua and Whyte.
Chisora goes on a rant about Froch
“Deontay will be at ringide. F**k Froch. Froch needs to shut the f**k up,” said Chisora when told that Carl Froch said that Joshua is on the slide. “He’s jealous. It’s jealousy. It’s nothing else.”
In fairness to Froch, he didn’t say anything that wasn’t already being said about Joshua going downhill with his career.
What else can you say about a fighter that has lost two out of his last three fights and three out of his last fight? From the journeyman Chisora’s standpoint, losing at a clip like that would seem like a norm, but it wasn’t for Joshua until 2019.
From 2013 to 2018, Joshua’s career was humming along, with him winning every fight and knocking out most of his opponents. But since 2019, the bottom has dropped out, with Joshua losing repeatedly and looking gunshy in the fights he’s won.
“You say things in public. Don’t say things in public,” said Chisora. “If I want to say something negative about AJ, I call him, ‘Yo, the way you boxed in this fight was not great.’
“That’s what you say as a friend, but when you’re jealous when you get in front of the cameras, you rant about a fighter. It’s jealousy. It’s nothing else.
“Is he [Froch] still with Sky? So Sky didn’t give him a new contract basically because he talks s**t about other people, that’s why. The 12th is going to be a good day for Londoners. It’s going to be buzzing,” said Chisora.
Froch’s criticism of Joshua doesn’t necessarily mean he’s jealous of him. I mean, he’s not the only fighter that Froch criticizes. He’d a straight shooter who tells it like it is rather than holding back and painting a false picture when a fighter looks bad.
AJ’s career on the line
“Both guys have changed a lot since the first fight. They were a bit naive back then, but when they looked each other in the eye today, nothing really changes from the kids they were back then and the kids they were in the amateurs,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN about Joshua & Whyte.
Hearn’s comment about Whyte & Joshua having changed a lot since their first fight in 2015 is an understatement. Both guys are heading downhill, with Whyte having lost three out of his last four and Joshua’s career on the brink of failure.
Joshua’s new trainer Derrick James doesn’t appear to be helping him at all, and if anything, he looks worse.
Instead of Joshua letting his hands go to bang out his underpowered opposition, he stays on the outside, throwing jabs, pacing himself, and looking very afraid to throw anything meaningful.
“Everyone is talking about what they’re seeing in the gym this time around,” Hearn said about Joshua training with Derrick James.
“Obviously, the focus is on AJ, but Dillian has a new trainer as well, Buddy McGirt. We had him for Jermaine Franklin. How much better do you think he’ll be?” said Ade Oladipo.
“That’s the same, isn’t it? They’ve both had one fight, and when you go into the next fight with that trainer, you’re going to be much better prepared,” said Hearn. “You’re going to gel more with that trainer. So I expect to see improvements from Dillian Whyte in this fight.
“I was around both guys. They weren’t really up for the Jermaine Franklin fight. That’s the reality. They wanted to win and trained really hard. This is different. This fight is different. It means so much more, and that’s why as a promoter, it’s such a buzz.
“Sometimes you turn up for a fight, ‘It’s a good fight,’ and then you get a fight like this. You know that if Dillian Whyte knocks out, it’s very likely the end of his career,” said Hearn.
