Anthony Joshua was in the house last night at The O2 in London, to cheer on and support his good friend Lawrence Okolie, who had a reasonably tough time of things in pounding out a 12 round decision over a game and durable Michal Cieslak, with “The Sauce” retaining his WBO cruiserweight belt and remaining on course for unification fights. And AJ was asked to give his take on the upcoming fight between defending WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury and challenger – and former Joshua foe – Dillian Whyte.
Joshua will of course be a most interested observer on April 23 at Wembley, seeing as he may well go on to face the winner. Joshua says he will be rotting for former KO victim Whyte to pull out the win. But don’t go thinking Joshua likes Whyte all of a sudden; he added when speaking with IFL TV how he “hates” Whyte and how he wants to “smash him one of these days.”
“It’s a good defence against Dillian Whyte,” Joshua said of the Fury fight. “Dillian needs to come in and look at what Tyson Fury does and reacts to the complete opposite. Maybe work the body and be conditioned to go the distance, but I hope Dillian trains hard and doesn’t underestimate Tyson. Because it’s his first time fighting for a [world] title, I think he’ll be hungry. This ain’t his 10th time fighting for a title and he can [afford to] have a little hiccup along the way – this is his first time fighting for a title. I’m rooting for Dillian, even though I hate him and I wanna smash him one of these days.”
It should be an interesting fight in April, maybe even a great fight. Whyte is a proficient body puncher, perhaps the most dangerous man Fury has met as far as body punching goes. If he can pull off the win, Whyte will shake up the heavyweight division in a big way, while Joshua, if he can avenge his loss to Oleksandr Usyk to become a three-time champ, will be back on top himself. Wouldn’t it be amazing if both Whyte AND Joshua won their upcoming fights?
What chance Joshua Vs. Whyte II, for all the marbles later this year? It could happen.