Joshua beats Cornish; Whyte stops Minto

By Boxing News - 09/12/2015 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: As I predicted, unbeaten heavyweight #2 WBC Anthony Joshua (14-0, 14 Kos) destroyed a badly over-matched Gary Cornish (21-1, 12 KOs) in the 1st round on Saturday night to capture the vacant Commonwealth heavyweight title at the O2 Arena in London, England. Joshua knocked the stork-like Cornish down twice in the round.

After the 2nd knockdown the referee halted the fight despite the fact that Cornish beat the count.

Joshua dropped Cornish with a right hand for the first knockdown. Cornish got up but was badly hurt, and it was clear he wasn’t going to last long. Joshua then bum rushed Cornish, driving him to the corner where he dropped him with a short right hand. The knockout shot wasn’t a big one, but Cornish was so hurt that he would have been knocked down if Joshua had breathed on him. The referee stopped the fight at 1:37. I think the fight should have been allowed to continue because it wasn’t fair to the fans or to Cornish to have the fight stopped after he’d beaten the count.

It was a case of perfect match-making by Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn to find a punching bag made to order for Joshua to destroy immediately. I said before the fight that Cornish was a step down from Joshua’s last 3rd tier opponent in Kevin Johnson, and I was correct.

With this win, Joshua will now be facing unbeaten heavyweight talent Dillian Whyte (16-0, 13 KOs) later this year on December 12th in London. Whyte destroyed Brian Minto by a 3rd round knockout earlier tonight on the same card. The only question is about the Whyte-Joshua fight is whether it will take place in December or not. Whyte revealed after his fight tonight that he has an injured shoulder that he took the Minto fight with. I don’t know that it’s a good idea for Whyte to go into the Joshua fight with just one arm like tonight. Whyte used mainly his right hand tonight, and only sparingly used his left. It might be a good idea for Hearn to postpone the Joshua vs. Whyte fight until Whyte’s left shoulder is healed. You don’t want to have Whyte fighting with just one arm, even though I think he’d still have a very good chance of beating Joshua with one hand.

“I managed to land the right hand with a perfect connection, and he went tumbling down,” Joshua said. “December 12th is definitely on. December 12th the date is set. We’ll be back to fight for the British title, and move on from there. He’s [Whyte] one nil, and now it’s my chance to get it back,” Joshua said.

“100 percent that’s signed,” Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said about the Joshua-Whyte fight. “Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte will fight on December 12th. That fight is going to be exciting for a lot of people,” Hearn said.

Whyte said “Yeah, it was a good performance. I told you he’d knock Cornish out in one round, and that’s what he did.”

When asked why he thinks he’ll beat Joshua, Whyte said “Because I’m a machine that’s why. I don’t fear no man. Everyone has power at heavyweight. You should know that Cornish came for a pasting, and that’s what he got. He was 21-0, and he never fought anyone in the top 100 or 200.”

Speaking of the December 12th fight against Joshua, Whyte said “Hopefully, he doesn’t pull an injury in December, because I’m looking to put on a good show and knock him out. The best man is going to win. I can punch and I can box. There’s certain things I can do to get the better of Joshua. He likes to stand there and slug. It’s going to be crazy. We’re both going to go in there and trade. I have power too. If I fought the guys Joshua had fought, I’d be 16-0 with 16 knockouts too. On December 12th, I’m going to put him in his place,” Whyte said.

I agree with Whyte. He’d have knocked out all the guys that Joshua had stopped and would have an identical record if he’d fought the same guys. I also think that Whyte would have knocked out Cornish in one round if he were the one fighting the 6’7″ heavyweight tonight instead of Joshua. Whyte says that he was looking to fight Cornish, but instead of fighting him, Cornish opted to take the fight with Joshua. Whyte thinks that Cornish went for the bigger money fight with Joshua rather than fighting him.

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Fighting with an injured left shoulder, unbeaten British heavyweight Dillian Whyte (16-0, 13 KOs) destroyed American heavyweight Brian Minto (41-10, 26 KOs) by a 3rd round knockout on Saturday night to capture the vacant WBC International Silver heavyweight title.

Whyte, 27, knocked the much smaller 5’11” Minto down once in the 1st and a final time in the 3rd. Minto, 40, decided to stay down after the knockdown in the third.

In the knockdown sequence, Whyte landed a crushing left hook to the head that caused Minto’s legs to wobble badly. Whyte then hit Minto with glancing left that caused Minto to drop to the canvas. He didn’t bother to get up and was quickly counted out.

In the 1st round, Whyte landed a huge chopping right hand that dropped Minto in the final seconds of the round. Minto was able to beat the count to get out of the round.

After the fight, Whyte revealed that he had come into the fight with an injured left shoulder that he hurt during training camp. Whyte says that he couldn’t use his left hand much in the fight due to the injury. Indeed, most of the punches Whyte threw in the fight were right hands. Fortunately for him that was all he needed to beat the minto.

“I hurt my left shoulder in training,” Whyte said after the fight. “I went kind of right hand crazy. He [trainer Johnathon Banks] said ‘Dude, you’re a lot better than you’re showing.'”

When asked if Whyte will be able to fight Anthony Joshua in December, Whyte said “I’ll show up in December even if I have one leg and one arm. I’m not a guy that throws a lot of right hands. I like to throw lefts. I know the Joshua fight will be a hard fight, but I don’t want to fight guys with losing records. I want to give the fans good fights. That’s what I’m here to do by winning the British title.”

Whyte showed some defensive liabilities tonight, as Minto was able to catch him frequently with shots. However, Whyte was willing to trade with him in order to land his much bigger punches. Whyte was still able to land some big shots with his left hand even though it was injured, but for the most part he was doing most of his work with his right hand.

We would hope that Whyte’s injured left shoulder will be healed up by the time that he faces Joshua in December. Whyte doesn’t have time to sit and rest his shoulder unfortunately. There’s only three months to go before the fight. At best, Whyte might have one month to rest his shoulder before he needs to start training camp for the Joshua fight in December.

In stopping Minto in the third round, Whyte equaled Tony Grano’s mark of halting Minto the quickest in his career. Chris Arreola stopped Minto in the 4th round in 2009. The big punching Joseph Parker needed 7 rounds to stop Minto last year in July 2014. It’s pretty impressive that Whyte was able to get Minto out of there over twice as fast as Parker. That tells you about the kind of punching power that Whyte possesses. He was able to do this for the most part in using mainly his right hand most of the fight. Granted, Whyte did finally unveil his left hook for the knockout in the 3rd, but he had Minto hurt numerous times with his right hand.

If Whyte’s left shoulder is fully healed by the time he faces Joshua in December, then I don’t see how Joshua will be able to win. He doesn’t have the chin to take Whyte’s huge power shots for 12 rounds without hitting the deck again and again like he did in their previous fight in 2009.

Other boxing results on the card:

Charlie Edwards UD 10 Louis Norman



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