The former two-time heavyweight champion of the world and Olympic gold medalist, Anthony Joshua has confirmed the opponent for his next fight. Taking place in the O2 Arena on August 12th, AJ will clash with a familiar foe in Dillian Whyte.
This will be a rematch of their 2015 headliner in the same arena which was for the vacant British heavyweight title. On that occasion, Joshua had his hand raised by seventh-round knockout, but it was the first time we saw vulnerabilities in Eddie Hearn‘s biggest asset.
Whyte was able to hurt Joshua and put him on wobbly legs, however, he survived and got the better of his bitter rival. The headlines came when the bad blood almost boiled over after the bell had gone following the first three minutes of action. Both men threw punches after the bell, corner teams stormed the ring and it got ugly. Luckily, we were able to get the remainder of the fight.
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Joshua since Whyte
Since their 2015 clash, Joshua broke onto the scene in an almost unprecedented way. After Whyte, he faced Charles Martin, winning the heavyweight title with ease. He went on to make six defences of the belt, including his legendary Wembley clash with Wladimir Klitschko.
Although he dropped the title against Andy Ruiz, he won it back in dominant fashion. After dominating Kubrat Pulev, Joshua took on Oleksandr Usyk in a pair of fights which saw him lose his titles and have a breakdown in the ring. We saw him return against Jermaine Franklin in a truly underwhelming performance last time out.
Joshua certainly needs to up his game against Whyte to get the victory.
Whyte since Joshua
Since losing to Joshua, Whyte went on an impressive 11 fight winning run. On this run, he knocked off names including Lucas Browne, Derek Chisora (twice) and Joseph Parker. He was brutally knocked out by Alexander Povetkin, however, avenged that loss and sent the Russian into retirement.
He finally got his shot at a world title after years of being ranked #1, however, it didn’t go his way. He was totally out-fought by Tyson Fury, getting knocked out at the end of the sixth round.
Like Joshua, Whyte fought Franklin in an unconvincing win last time out.
On August 12th, live from the O2 Arena Joshua and Whyte will once again face each other in what is being billed as ‘History of Violence’. The winner will remain in contention for the heavyweight title, the loser says goodbye to the big fights at heavyweight.
