Home Boxing News The knives come out for Anthony Joshua ahead of proposed Dillian Whyte...

The knives come out for Anthony Joshua ahead of proposed Dillian Whyte rematch

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Perennial contender Dillian Whyte 29-3 (19) will defeat Anthony Joshua 25-3 (22) is they meet in a rematch this year, according to a fellow heavyweight.

Former two-time unified heavyweight champion Joshua is planning two more fights this year. His promoter Eddie Hearn revealed an offer had been made to Whyte to face Joshua on August 12. The second fight in the works for Joshua is a high-profile battle against former WBC champion Deontay Wilder 43-2-1 (42) in Saudi Arabia in December.

The 33-year-old Joshua was 14-0 when he defeated the 16-0 Whyte, 36, by seventh-round knockout eight years ago. More recently, Joshua has lost three of his past six bouts while Whyte has lost two of his last four by knockout.

British heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley 16-0 (15) says Whyte is more than capable of reversing the result if they meet again.

Of course the first rule of journalism is “consider the source”. Wardley is managed by Whyte.

“I’d get massively excited because that’s the perfect fight for both of them at the point of their careers that they’re in,” Wardley told talkSPORT.

“They’re both at a bit of a middle ground where they’ve come off losses, then they’ve won and their back in the mix now.

“But, they need a statement win, a high level win against someone of worth, someone of note and they’re the right person for each other.

“They could do it on a week’s notice and it would sell out the O2 or Wembley, it’s a massive fight for British fight fans and something that everyone would love to see.

“I’d be more than happy to see that, but I’d always back Dillian to win.

“There’s a bit of bias because he’s my manager, he looks after me and he’s someone I’m very close to, but bias aside, I would back him regardless.”

But Wardley isn’t the only one who believes Joshua has seen better days. British boxing royalty Chris Eubank says Joshua is on the decline.

“If at 13 fights his promoter puts him into a world championship fight, he’s destroyed him because he hasn’t learned the trade,” Eubank told talkSPORT.

“You’re going to come up against fighters like [Andy] Ruiz who are going to expose you. That’s the fault of the promoter who is fast-tracking the fighter for money, looking at his muscles, not at the content of his abilities.”

Pundit Simon Jordan agrees with Eubank.

“The boxing world is now turning full circle on Anthony Joshua and saying, ‘You’re done’.” Jordan told the Up Front podcast. “I think people are actually beginning to laugh at the concept that Anthony Joshua could beat one of the top heavyweights now.

“In my view it is that his demise started after he fought [Wladimir] Klitschko, where he went into a certain place to have to win that fight. I think since then he’s gone on and fought in a certain way which has taken him out of the way of risk and he isn’t prepared to put himself in the way of risk that he once did before, when he was a wrecking machine.”

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