Heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte has taken some hard shots at his upcoming opponent, former world champion Joseph Parker.
Parker suffered a twelve round decision loss in his March unification with Anthony Joshua, who walked away with the WBO, WBA, IBF, IBO world titles.
Now Whyte, who was stopped by Joshua in 2015, is facing Parker on July 28, live on Sky Sports Box Office, at the O2 Arena in London.
After the contest was over in March, Parker and his handlers were very angry with the referee.
They said the referee was preventing Parker from applying his strategy, and also showing favoritism for Joshua.
Whyte disagrees.
He actually felt the referee prevented Parker from suffering a knockout loss at the hands of Joshua.
"Both of them fought completely different," said Whyte to Sky Sports.
"Parker was on the back foot, he's usually a come-forward fighter, and Joshua wasn't able to cut him off and close him down as much as he would have liked to, because they were both happy and content. Parker was happy and content to lose, Joshua was happy and content to pick up the win.
"Their styles didn't really gel. The referee didn't help the situation, but I believe the referee actually helped Joseph Parker out, because had he allowed them to fight on the inside, I reckon Joshua would have won by KO."
A victory over Parker could catapult Whyte to a 2019 rematch with Joshua - which is certainly a stadium contest in the UK.
But Whyte is not looking too far ahead. He's fully focused on the task at hand with Parker.
"Well, a fight with me and Anthony Joshua is always a phone call away," said Whyte. "It can happen next fight, two fights from now, who knows?
"But I've got bigger things to focus on right now and it's Joseph Parker, so I'm focusing on that. After the 29th of July, I'll start screaming from the roof about a fight. But now I've got Joseph Parker to focus on. It's a big challenge, so I'm completely focusing on cutting him down, and hacking him to bits on the night."
