Joshua vs. Whyte a done deal for December 12th!

By Boxing News - 09/14/2015 - Comments

whyte555By Scott Gilfoid: With unbeaten heavyweight Dillian Whyte’s impressive 3rd round knockout win over Brian Minto (41-10, 26 KOs) last Saturday night, and Anthony Joshua’s equally exciting 1st round knockout over the 6’7” previously unbeaten Gary Cornish (21-1, 12 KOs) on the same card, Whyte vs. Joshua is now officially set for December 12th at the O2 Arena in London, England. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed that the fight is signed and ready to go for the 12th of December in a fight for the vacant British heavyweight title.

There’s only one thing that could potentially trip up the fight from taking place and that’s Whyte’s shoulder injury. He said that he hurt his left shoulder before his fight against Minto, and this caused him to fight with just his right hand against Minto.

“It’s not going to be easy to knock me out,” Joshua said via skysports.com. “I hope he trains hard. I hope his [left] shoulder holds up. I really don’t want an excuse come December 12th. We can get it on and he can prove to the world what he’s saying. I imagine if someone did do that and become the pound-for-pound No.1. I’ve got a chance to do that. It would be a massive task, but why not? If he [Mayweather] can do it then why can’t it? That’s what I’m aiming to do,” Joshua said.

Whyte’s shoulder injury is definitely something to be concerned with. Whyte said it was a major injury to his shoulder, and he clearly wasn’t able to use his arm much in his win over Minto. Whyte has roughly a month to rest his shoulder right now before he needs to start training for his December 12th fight.

I don’t know that four weeks is going to be enough time for Whyte’s shoulder to heal up. Who knows what’s wrong with it? If it’s something that needs surgery, then he’s going to need to make a decision to fight with the injury or postpone the fight. Whyte has already said that he’ll take the fight regardless of being injured.

“We will work on things, we will come back here and I will knock him out,” Whyte said via Fight News. “Every Heavyweight has power. Mike Tyson had a lot of power and he still lost. There are a couple of chinks but that isn’t for me to say.”

A lot of people in the boxing world are picking the 6’6” Joshua to defeat Whyte, especially after seeing his somewhat sloppy performance against Minto last Saturday. I don’t think it’s really fair to judge Whyte from the Minto fight because he was clearly fighting with just one arm, and he seemed to have problems holding his left arm up to block punches.

Whyte was keeping the arm low for much of the fight, as if he couldn’t lift it to protect himself. If Whyte’s left shoulder injury is a bad one, then it would explain why he kept his left arm down in the Minto fight. The last thing you want to do is hold up an arm when you’ve got an injured shoulder.



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