Josh Warrington tips Whyte to defeat AJ on August 12

Josh Warrington has sensationally backed Dillian Whyte to upset the odds and defeat Anthony Joshua in the heavyweight pair’s respective heavyweight rematch on August 12th at the 02 Arena, London. The heavyweight pair fought in an exciting heavyweight shootout in December 2015, in which Joshua claimed victory in seven rounds to claim the British heavyweight title in an enthralling atmosphere in the capital. Joshua has since gone on to be a former two-time world unified heavyweight champion, while Whyte himself was unsuccessful in his world title attempt in April 2022, suffering a sixth-round knockout defeat to Tyson Fury at Wembley Stadium, London. Both fighters are on the comeback trail following their respective defeats in world title fights against Usyk (Joshua, back-to-back defeats) and Fury (Whyte). Both fighters have since fought Jermaine Franklin in their respective returns following their defeats, of which many observers criticised both Joshua & Whyte in their performances against Franklin. Both fighters won their contests via points, while Joshua’s win was comfortable and uninspiring. Whyte in comparison, fought a literal life-and-death fight against Franklin in December of 2022. Warrington, a former two-time IBF world featherweight champion, spoke to Talksport and has backed Whyte to claim victory once the rivals meet in August. The Leeds native feels that Whyte will want to make the fight a scrappy affair which will suit Whyte more so than Joshua. “It’s going to be a tough fight, I do believe this AJ vs Whyte fight is going to be a lot closer than the first one. I don’t think AJ’s on the slide, but I feel like he’ll want to prove something. Not only to himself, but to everyone else,” Warrington told Talk Sport. “To show that he has still got it, to show that he is still that aggressive animal that he can be. But that’s gonna play well into Dillian, because Dillian loves to be in the trenches in a fight. It’s not the end of the road, but I’m gonna be favouring towards Dillian in this one.” A defeat for Joshua against Whyte would see him lose his contract offer to fight Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia this upcoming December. Promoter Eddie Hearn has already conceded this possible outcome when speaking earlier this week. However, Warrington continues to add that even if Joshua does lose to Whyte in August, he does not expect the former two-time unified world champion to retire. Maybe his limelight might die down for a few months, but I don’t feel like he’s done. Say if he did lose and he came back against someone like Deontay Wilder and beat Wilder, it’s heavyweight boxing,” Warrington said. “Football teams can be on a good run of form, have one loss and then next week have the chance to make up for it. But in boxing, as soon as you take a loss, that’s it, you’re ‘done’. But then you come back, you beat somebody else and then you’re back on form again.”