Dillian Whyte prefers a rematch with Anthony Joshua rather than a title shot against unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk because he feels the Ukrainian lacks personality. He’s not the draw that AJ is.
Whyte (28-3, 19 KOs) could lock himself into a rematch with Joshua if he defeats Jermaine Franklin this Saturday night at the OVO Arena in London, England.
Dillian’s promoters at Matchroom Boxing have made it easy to get the rematch with Joshua by picking the bottom fringe contender Franklin (21-0, 14 KOs) for him to fight rather than giving him a tough obstacle.
Although Franklin is unbeaten, his resume is filled with dreadful opposition. For example, his last two opponents, Rodney Moore and Pavel Sour are 47 and 40 years old.
Interestingly, Dillian Whyte says his goal is to capture a world title before he retires from the sport. However, given Whyte’s attitude about preferring to chase the money fights over world titles, it’s unlikely he’ll capture a belt before he ages out and is no longer physically capable.
As it is, Whyte has lost 2 out of his last 4 fights by knockout, and it would appear that he’s already too depleted to win a world title. In that case, the only thing left for him is to get money fights given to him by Matchroom.
If Whyte loses to the American Franklin on Saturday, we’ll see if Eddie Hearn will want to use him as an opponent for Joshua to fight in early 2023.
“Usyk is a great fighter, but he sucks as far as a personality point of view as well. He doesn’t really sell, so now he’s getting a lot of kudos because he beat Joshua,” said Dillian Whyte to Matchroom Boxing about why he prefers to face Anthony Joshua in a rematch rather than fight IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
“Even though Anthony Joshua lost to Usyk, Joshua is still technically a bigger draw than him. So it just makes sense for me to chase that [Joshua rematch] then to chase that [title shot against unified three-belt world champion Usyk].
“I don’t know,” said Whyte when asked if fighters avoided him. “They all say I’m rubbish,’ that I’m going to lose this fight, and I’m done.
“I want to be a world champion,” said Whyte when asked what his ambition is in boxing,” said Whyte.
