Whyte: Joshua Not a Thug? South London Punk Sung Him Out!

By Edward Chaykovsky

Things are far from settled between heavyweight rivals Dillian Whyte (16-1, 13KOs) and Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15KOs).

The two fighters collided last December in London. Whyte was able to chin check Joshua and had him hurt in the second. Joshua recovered and ended up knocking out Whyte in the seventh round. It was the first Joshua bout to go beyond three rounds.

Whyte states that during the second round he injured his shoulder and it affected his ability to finish off Joshua. The fighter had surgery a few days later. After the fight Whyte says the power punching ability of Joshua is overrated. While he says Joshua can punch, he is not that impressed after hearing all of the hype about the Olympic gold medal winner's power. 

He tells Sky Sports: "If I was 100 or even 80 percent fit and injury-free, I'm a million percent sure that I'd have knocked him out in that second round or the round after. You can see in the second round that I took it off because my shoulder was so tight that I couldn't even jab. I was throwing silly rights without setting them up.

"My coach wanted me to stop in the fourth round because the injury was that bad but I told him that I'm a warrior. I wasn't going to sit on my stool and quit. I wanted to go out that way. I'm old school. I get injuries and I carry on and think it will be alright. It's a good mind-set in a way but I'm at the stage where I need to be more professional going into the big fights, because the injury changed the outcome out of the fight.

"He's not a one-punch knockout artist. I was more exhausted than anything else. I was surprised by how slow he is and how easy he is to hit. He's not as powerful as everybody says. I'm not making excuses but I was in pain and exhausted. I panicked and starting throwing those right hands. He doesn't hit as hard as people make out."

In the lead up to the fight, Whyte claimed Joshua was nothing more than a street thug and says the fact his opponent was led to the ring by a London grime artists, Stormzy, proves it.

"It was stupid. You're an Olympic gold medallist. What sort of rubbish is that to come out to? You're supposed to be getting the British public behind you. What nonsense is that?," Whyte said.

"You're not a street thug. Why are you going on like you're a street thug? Why is he trying to push this bad boy image by getting a south London punk to sing him out? It's stupid. He needs to sort himself out. I don't know what he's trying to do."