Dillian Whyte knows all too well what it is like to be in the ring with Anthony Joshua.
The pair are long time rivals and their animosity dates back to their amateur days when they had a first clash in 2009. That saw Whyte hand Joshua his first-ever defeat in the ring.
In December 2015, Joshua and Whyte met again, this time in a high-stakes professional bout for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles. Both were undefeated as professionals at the time and the fight was personal. The build-up was filled with trash talk and bad blood with Whyte determined to prove that his previous win over Joshua wasn’t a fluke.
However, the fight ended in dramatic fashion when Joshua won by knockout in the seventh round with a huge uppercut but not before he was wobbled for the first time in his career.
Talks of a rematch persisted for years and one eventually was signed for August 2023 but Whyte failed a drug test in the run-up and was pulled from the card.
AJ moved on and will now battle it out this weekend against Daniel Dubois with the chance of becoming a three-time heavyweight champion.
Speaking to talkSPORT Boxing, Whyte assessed Dubois’ chances and warned the 27-year-old that he won’t be able to take as many right hands from Joshua that he did in his last outing against Filip Hrgovic.
“This is a great fight. Dubois is going into the reverse of his last fight. Apparently his last fight, Hrgovic bashed him up in sparring and [Dubois] bashed him up in the fight. In this fight, apparently Daniel bashed ‘AJ’ up in sparring and they get reversed roles going into the fight. Apparently Daniel is confident cause of what happened but I hope he isn’t too confident. He don’t want to stand in front of ‘AJ’ and take too many right hands or he’s going to sleep.”
Whyte, who has fought once since the cancellation of his ‘AJ’ trilogy, then compared the power of both men and predicted an even fight.
“‘AJ’ is a pig puncher but he is more of a sharp combination puncher. Daniel is a bit more slow and methodical, clubbing puncher. But with 10oz gloves on, anyone over 15 stone is a big puncher. It’s a genuine 50-50 fight in my opinion.”
Dubois will be defending his IBF title for the first time in this fight, which takes place in front of a record crowd at Wembley Stadium.
