The soft and smooth road was never an option for Dillian Whyte. Instead, he was asked to take an arduous path.

In doing so, Whyte (29-3, 19 KOs) has several unflattering bumps and bruises. His first scrape came against Anthony Joshua in 2015, a seventh-round stoppage loss. But after picking himself up and wiping off the dust, Whyte reeled off 11 consecutive victories before losing two of three over the last few years.

There’s a pattern with Whyte, no matter how many times he loses, he finds a way to eventually right the ship and get back on track. So, with an impending sequel against Joshua set for August 12th, Derek Chisora is convinced that if he comes up short again, that pattern will continue. For Joshua, on the other hand, if another defeat is plastered to his resume, that might be all she wrote.

“If Dillian loses he can come back from this one,” Chisora told Boxing Social. “If AJ loses it’s gonna be hard for him to come back.”

There’s a lot on the line for Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs) next month. According to Eddie Hearn, he's essentially locked into a deal that will see him take on Deontay Wilder at the end of the year in Saudi Arabia. For years the big punching heavyweights have circled around one another but have been unable to work out an agreement.

In terms of how Chisora believes their showdown will play out, he’s a bit ambivalent. With question marks surrounding Joshua’s fairly new partnership with Derrick James, Chisora is anxious to see if the pair will continue to gel.

Inquisitive thoughts aside, Chisora might be unsure who will win but he’s 100% certain that if Joshua just so happens to come out on the losing end, he can officially kiss his showdown against Wilder goodbye.

“If anything happens, AJ is f-----. He’s not getting the fight.”