Dillian Whyte wants a further fight before challenging Anthony Joshua or Deontay Wilder for the world heavyweight title.

On Saturday, at London’s O2 Arena, the 30-year-old produced his finest performance to secure his best win in outpointing Joseph Parker to perhaps prove he has become their leading contender.

His long-term rival Joshua next defends his IBF, WBA, IBO and WBO titles at Wembley Stadium against Russia’s Alexander Povetkin on September 22 and is scheduled to fight there again in April.

It is still hoped that the WBC champion Wilder, of America, will be his next opponent but if he is not, Whyte will be the favourite to fight Joshua again. Their promoter, Eddie Hearn, believes the rematch has become “inevitable”.

New Zealander Parker, 26, was considered a threat to Joshua while he reigned as WBO champion, but having lost his title in their unification fight in March has suffered successive defeats and is faced with rebuilding his reputation.

Whyte wants to fight either Tyson Fury or Manuel Charr in December before the Joshua fight comes off.

"I want either Fury or Charr next," Whyte exclusively told Sky Sports.

"Charr has the WBA belt so why not, it's a good fight, he's a great fighter and will come to fight. Whether he wants it is a different story, I know I do and it can be made. It's time I got a shot.

"Then there's Fury. The guy's a joker and a mess, mentally and physically, he's irrelevant right now. He's saying he wants to fight Wilder, but he's talking rubbish, that won't happen and it makes no sense right now. Fury-Whyte is a great fight, let's get it done. It's more realistic him fighting me. If he wants a real fight, we can get it on in December, it'll have the money and hype, and it'll be massive.

"It's a proper British dust-up and will be a better fight than him against Wilder. Fury knows what happened the last time we shared the ring. I'm not going to talk about sparring stories but he knows."