Tensions between Dillian Whyte and Anthony Joshua may already be on the rise, as Whyte reveals what happened in their ringside exchange after his latest fight.
Joshua was watching on as Whyte laboured to a majority decision over previously-undefeated American, Jermaine Franklin. Once Whyte was announced as the winner, the former champion stoop and spoke to him from outside the ropes.
As ‘AJ’ tells it, it was a quick, congratulatory interaction.
“I just said well done, spudded him and just said well done. That was it really.”
There was a little more too it, though, at least according to Whyte. ‘The Bodysnatcher’ told SecondsOut that ‘AJ’ went in a little hard with their first bump – or ‘spud’ – and he told him to take it easy.
“I just spud him, then he spud me hard. I said to him ‘Bro, relax, why you always so tense? It’s just a spud, bro. Just be easy. Relax. We’re not fighting, bro.’ He just thumped my fist. I said to him ‘You’re always tense, moving mad. Take it easy, man.'”
It represents the tension that’s present between the two – one that often comes across as hard fought respect, whilst other times looks to be genuine dislike. Joshua knocked Whyte out in their fight back in 2015, and they’re rumoured to be discussing a rematch for the first half of 2023.
For the narrative of the fight, the promoters are keen to point out that Whyte beat AJ in the amateurs, which technically makes it 1-1.
Whilst it looked like the plans were forming nicely, Deontay Wilder has since thrown his hat in the ring to face Joshua next, and it will be up to the big man from Watford as to who he shares the ring with after two consecutive losses to Oleksandr Usyk.