Former two-time world champion, Josh Warrington, is picking Dillian Whyte to upset the odds and beat Anthony Joshua when the British big men face off in their rematch on August 12.
It comes just under eight years after they first came to blows as professionals in an action-packed fight in London in December 2015. Joshua took that one with a knockout in the 7th round and since then both men have had big wins and big losses. Most recently, they both outpointed American Jermaine Franklin in performances that were widely seen to be below par.
Joshua’s team has already line-up a mega fight with fellow former world champion Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia should he best ‘The Body Snatcher’ in what will be their third fight following a first match up in the amateurs.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Warrington thinks Josuha’s need to look good and make a statement against Whyte might be his undoing.
“It’s gonna be a tough fight, I do believe this AJ vs Whyte fight is gonna be a lot closer than the first one. I don’t think AJ’s on the slide, but I feel like he’ll wanna prove something. Not only to himself, but to everyone else.
To show that he has still got it, to show that he is still that aggressive animal that he can be. But that’s gonna play well into Dillian, because Dillian loves to be in the trenches in a fight. It’s not the end of the road, but I’m gonna be favouring towards Dillian in this one.”
Warrington has himself taken two rematches in his career – one against Kiko Martinez in which he repeated his victory the first time out, and one with Mexican knockout artist Mauricio Lara, who stopped ‘The Leeds Warrior’ first time round then was himself stopped on a cut in the rematch which ended a technical draw.
Since regaining his IBF world featherweight with that second knock out of Martinez, he’s lost it on points against Luis Alberto Lopez in December and is now eyeing a title shot with fellow Brit Leigh Wood. It’s a demonstration that a career needn’t end with a high-profile loss, as Warrington outlines in the case of Joshua.
“Maybe his limelight might die down for a few months, but I don’t feel like he’s done. Say if he did lose and he came back against someone like Deontay Wilder and beat Wilder, it’s heavyweight boxing.”
Joshua, however, will be hoping to make it two professional wins out of two against Whyte.