David Haye rates Dillian Whyte’s chances of beating Anthony Joshua in rematch

After a bad-tempered build-up, the two met in December that year in an explosive encounter at the O2 Arena with Joshua securing the 15^th win of his career that night with a devastating seventh round finish, marching onto win his first world title four months later.

Joshua would go onto reign as champion for almost five years – broken up by a six-month stint where Andy Ruiz Jr held the IBF, WBA and WBO titles in 2019 – before being dethroned by Oleksandr Usyk last September.

A second consecutive defeat to the undefeated Ukrainian in August pushed the former Olympian out of the world title picture for the time being, with a rematch with old foe Whyte now looming in 2023.

Whyte is coming off the back of his own devastating defeat, knocked out by Tyson Fury at Wembley in April, and hopes to return to winning ways against undefeated American Jermaine Franklin on Saturday.

Hopeful the Brixton fighter comes through that test to set up the rematch, Haye believes Joshua vs Whyte II will be just as big as the former’s doomed meeting with Tyson Fury, which fell through yet again in September.

And the former cruiserweight and heavyweight champion insists a fully fit Whyte, having struggled with a shoulder problem in the lead up to the first encounter and Joshua, will be confident of doing some damage having ‘buckled the knees’ of the former champion seven years ago.

‘It is massive, it will probably be as big as the fight against Fury in terms of excitement and numbers,’ Haye told Metro.co.uk.

‘It would be more intriguing. For Joshua, off the strength of him losing to Usyk, he might have lost some of that public perception around him, about how good he really he is. He will want to prove himself.

‘Dillian Whyte is super confident as always. He hurt Anthony Joshua back then and he didn’t believe he had his right arm in that fight, he went onto have shoulder surgery not long after that fight. He was that confident going into it and he buckled the knees of Joshua momentarily.

‘It was an exciting fight in and out of the ring. Both have had ups and downs since then, it has been a rocky road for both of them. But I just think sometimes it is all about matchmaking. I think the winner of Whyte vs Franklin will be challenging Joshua in a big showdown next year, it makes perfect sense.

‘We understand that Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk is going to be bubbling on but this is a fight that can be made. Both fighters are all on the same page, politically it seems very doable. If Whyte can beat this American hotshot he will have his big pay-per-view night and get another mega payday against Joshua.’

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