Dillian Whyte wants to send Anthony Joshua into retirement, but is asked if his opponent will take the rematch | Boxing news
Dillian Whyte says Anthony Joshua would be the ‘perfect’ next fight, but questions whether his team will risk a rematch after his incredible knockout loss to Daniel Dubois.
Joshua is considering his options after Tyson Fury announced his retirement leaving him without an opponent for his planned comeback fight at Wembley this summer following a fifth round defeat to Dubois in September.
Whyte’s rematch with Joshua was called off in August 2023 after the Brixton player produced ‘adverse analytical findings’ in a drugs test, but the 36-year-old was allowed to continue his career after an investigation confirmed it was caused by a contaminated supplement.
The 36-year-old, who returned with Ebenezer Tetteh last month, told Sky Sports: “[Joshua] Sounds perfect to me. They don’t need to ask me twice. They’re talking about me as an option, but they haven’t told me anything, so that’s their negotiating tactic. But I’m ready to fight and I’m ready to fight again.
“If he wants to fight, then all they have to do is call me. I’m always ready to fight AJ. No problem for me. But personally, I think he’s done.
“I think he made a big mistake not taking the rematch with Dubois right away. It was a world title fight, a great payoff and a perfect opportunity to avenge the knockout loss. He will forever have to suffer the memes of having his face planted at Wembley from Dubois.
“When I lost from [Alexander] Povetkin, on the way back to my dressing room, I crashed Eddie Hearn’s live interview and demanded an immediate rematch. Nothing else mattered until I beat him back. It’s a mindset thing. I want to fight AJ and Tyson again because they both beat me, although with AJ it doesn’t matter [in his first amateur fight, Whyte knocked down and defeated Joshua].”
Deontay Wilder has also been mentioned as an option for Joshua, despite back-to-back losses, including a knockout loss to Zhilei Zhang last June.
“Wilder is the biggest fraud in the history of boxing,” Whyte said. “A complete coward who avoided me for five years. He’s a disgrace and has been exposed multiple times since then. Shouldn’t he be pursuing rematches with Parker and Zhang? He’s a fool and has no shame.”
But Whyte has heard that Joshua is still keen to settle their bitter rivalry.
“He’s going to show up to fight me. If me and AJ fight, if we’re 100 years old, he’s going to show up to fight me,” Whyte said.
“Me and him are always going to be a good fight. We just have that chemistry. I don’t want to lose to him, he doesn’t want to lose to me, and we want to prove each other wrong. We want to hit each other, so it’s always going to be good fight.
“Eddie [Hearn] has publicly stated that Joshua might fight me next time, but whether he will or not, I don’t know if he or his people want it, then we’ll wait and see. I’d like to retire him.”
Joshua has been out of the ring since losing to Dubois and Whyte is confident he would deliver another crushing defeat to the former world champion.
“Maybe AJ underestimated him because he trained with him and saw Dubois quit a few times,” Whyte said.
“Maybe he thought, I’ll just throw my punches and he’ll back off, but it was strange. I don’t understand. His hands were down, he was punching and pulling, it was a strange fight.
“The fact that you’re fighting a massive puncher, a guy who’s 17 stone plus, as muscular as you, as strong as you, and you’re fighting with your hands down and you’re throwing a master uppercut with nothing in front of you. It’s crazy.
“No way [could he fight like that against me]. Last time I tagged him pretty good with my hands up, so imagine if he did that [against me].”
