Dillian Whyte has weighed in with his two cents on this weekend’s monster heavyweight clash between his long-time rival Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois.
Joshua and Dubois will lock horns for the latter’s IBF world title in front of 96,000 at Wembley Stadium – the same venue at which Whyte fell short against Tyson Fury back in 2022.
‘Dynamite’ was elevated to full world champion shortly after picking up the interim strap with a win over Filip Hrgovic back in June, in what has since been heralded as the best performance of his 23-fight career thus far.
However, he did ship a lot of shots in the early stages of the contest, and Whyte believes he cannot afford to do the same this Saturday night.
Speaking to talkSPORT Boxing, the 36-year-old explained that he believes Dubois will be “going to sleep” if Joshua is able to land with the same regularity that Hrgovic did.
‘The Body Snatcher’ also warned the 27-year-old not to take too much confidence from the success he may have enjoyed in sparring sessions with ‘AJ’ many moons ago.
“This is a great fight. Dubois is going into the reverse of his last fight.
“Apparently his last fight, Hrgovic bashed him up in sparring and [Dubois] bashed him up in the fight.
“In this fight, apparently Daniel bashed ‘AJ’ up in sparring and they get reversed roles going into the fight.
“Apparently Daniel is confident cause of what happened but I hope he isn’t too confident.
😳 𝘿𝘼𝙉𝙄𝙀𝙇 𝘿𝙐𝘽𝙊𝙄𝙎 𝙃𝘼𝙎 𝙎𝙀𝙍𝙄𝙊𝙐𝙎 𝙋𝙊𝙒𝙀𝙍 💣💥
Will Anthony Joshua be able to take these shots on September 21? 🤔#Boxing #JoshuaDubois #DanielDubois pic.twitter.com/xAxFuoX1mC
— Pro Boxing Fans (@ProBoxingFans) September 12, 2024
“He don’t want to stand in front of ‘AJ’ and take too many right hands or he’s going to sleep.”
Whyte knows better than most how formidable a puncher Joshua is, having been stopped by him in seven rounds when they met in a memorable and hot-tempered British title clash almost a decade ago.
The pair, who have known each other since they were teenagers, were set to rematch last summer, however this was cancelled a week out after the Brixton man returned a positive VADA test, although he was cleared to resume his career in March after an investigation confirmed that the positive drugs test was caused by a contaminated supplement.
