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Heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte, who was stopped by Anthony Joshua in seven rounds back in 2015, says his former foe needs to rediscover his aggression in order to overcome Oleksandr Usyk in their upcoming rematch.
Last September at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Joshua was outboxed by Usyk over twelve rounds. The rematch happens on Saturday night in Saudi Arabia.
The WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA heavyweight titles will be at stake.
Another defeat would send Joshua’s career in a downward spiral.
Whyte is expecting Joshua to bounce back from defeat, but he emphasis that his countryman must be aggressive and willing go the extra mile to defeat the talented man from Ukraine.
“It’s a massive fight, the biggest fight of his career,” Whyte told Sky Sports. “I do expect him to bounce back, he’s a British fighter like me and I only support our own, so I do hope he gets the job done.
“It’s good for me if he wins as well. I can understand that [rediscovering his aggressive side], because I’m of the same mindset as well. In my last fight [against Tyson Fury] I wasn’t as aggressive as I normally am, I’ve said the same thing to myself, I need to rediscover that aggression. I think it’s the right mindset he needs going into the fight, it’s the only way he wins the fight.
“When we fought, we fought twice, both fights we had there was a lot of aggression between me and him in the fight, that’s the difference between fighting me and fighting Usyk, that aggression wasn’t there. He was sort of trying to outbox someone who has been boxing for 25/30 years. I believe if he revisits that aggression he had for me he does a much better job and probably beats Usyk and knocks him out this time. Me and him are similar in a lot of ways, we come forward and throw a lot of punches, are aggressive and enforce ourselves on our opponents, I think they’ll be trying to get him back to that.”