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Dillian Whyte says he has become so frustrated as his career stalled after an irregular doping test that he considered walking away from the sport. Whyte faces Mariusz Wach on Saturday in the London heavyweight’s first fight since a points win over Oscar Rivas, a fight that went ahead after a hearing of the National Anti-Doping Panel into the irregular test result.
Anthony Joshua claims that he would not regard regaining the world heavyweight title from Andy Ruiz as a special moment, because he says he has much more to achieve in his boxing career. Speaking at the final head-to-head press conference for Saturday’s fight in Diriyah, Joshua played down the significance of the task ahead of him.
A calmer Anthony Joshua will be stepping into the ring on Saturday night, according to his head trainer, Rob McCracken, one who will be better prepared to avoid the mistakes that led to his downfall in the first fight with Andy Ruiz. McCracken believes that Joshua caused his own problems when losing the first fight in New York, leaving himself wide open when rushing in to finish off Ruiz after knocking him down in the third round.
By Ron Lewis - For most of its existence, the world heavyweight title seldom strayed beyond the borders of the United States, yet when Andy Ruiz Jr defends WBA, WBO, IBO and IBF heavyweight titles against Anthony Joshua is Diriyah next week, Saudi Arabia will become the 24th country to stage a world heavyweight title fight. It is 127 years since...
Eddie Hearn has called on UK Anti-Doping to issue a statement about Dillian Whyte and end the saga of the heavyweight’s adverse doping test, which has now drifted on for five months. It was revealed that Whyte produced an adverse test ahead of his points win over Oscar Rivas in July. A meeting of the National Anti-Doping Panel, held on the morning of the fight, cleared Whyte to box.
A slimline version of Anthony Joshua said he is expecting his rivalry with Andy Ruiz Jr to turn into a trilogy after final revealing that he has lost a significant amount of weight since their first fight in June. Joshua turned up at the public workout in Riyadh having completed his final six rounds of sparring earlier in the day. With the temperature dropping – Ruiz wore a woolly hat during his session – Joshua did barely two minutes of shadow boxing for the crowd before cutting to do an interview.
Anthony Joshua has dismissed any suggestions that he will retire from boxing win or lose after his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr on Saturday, insisting he has not yet reached the end of the 15-year “sentence” he gave himself when first taking up the sport. Joshua, 30, will earn the biggest purse of his career, rumoured to be around $50 million, despite being the challenge when he takes on Ruiz in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.
When Anthony Joshua decided to go for an instant rematch with Andy Ruiz, the comparison everyone reached to in order to justify the decision was Lennox Lewis. It was a shock every bit as big as Ruiz’s win over Joshua when Lewis was flattened by Hasim Rahman in South Africa in 2001. Revenge, though, was swift and conclusive as Lewis left the American flat on his back in the fourth round in Las Vegas seven months later.
If the Olympic Games is the peak for any amateur boxer, winning a world title remains the goal for them turning professional. Not that long ago, it was considered an achievement if two British boxers qualified for the Olympics. Now there are so many, they are in a race to see who will win a world title first. Joe Cordina’s adventure at the Rio Olympics latest just two bouts, as he failed to make the medal stages. But progress has been smooth so far as a professional, as the Welshman has won all his ten fights, winning the British and Commonwealth lightweight titles in the process.
Frank Warren says that he believes Zolani Tete can win bantamweight unification fight against Naoya Inoue providing he successfully defends his WBO title against John Riel Casimero on Saturday night in Birmingham. Tete, the 31-year-old South African, has been out of the ring for more than a year after suffering a shoulder injury that forced him to pull out of his World Boxing Super Series semi-final against Donaire. Inouye beat Donaire in the final of the WBSS, but Warren believes Tete stands a serious chance against the Japanese superstar.