Dillian Whyte rejects offer from Joshua’s camp, other opponents being considered

Promoter Eddie Hearn says an offer has been made to Dillian Whyte 29-3 (19) to face former two-time unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua 25-3 (22) in August, but the perennial contender is baulking at the price.

The bout would be a rematch of their 2015 clash that Joshua won by 7th round knockout.

“We’ve made an offer to Dillian, he’s definitely not accepting that offer, he doesn’t have to. He’s always going to want more money than I think is the right number for that fight,” the Matchroom Boxing boss told Boxing Social.

“We are talking to two other fighters about fighting on August 12th. There is a chance it might not be Dillian Whyte, but we have to make a move this week really or the beginning of next week.“It’s eight weeks this Saturday and obviously we’re having the ongoing conversations about the Deontay Wilder fight [I Saudi Arabia in December] because a lot of it stems from that. Once the Wilder fight is locked in, it makes the opponent on August 12 less of a factor.

“Right now we want to fight Dillian Whyte, that’s 100% the fight that AJ wants, but if we lock in Deontay Wilder maybe we fight in someone else in the top 15 that we can make an easy deal with.

“It’s not so much AJ wanting to be in a massive fight in August if he’s got Wilder signed, it’s him wanting to fight, improve, learn under Derrick James and get back in the ring.

“If it can’t be Dillian it will be someone else, but it’s still the plan to fight August 12.”

The 36-year-old Whyte says Hearn is not serious about making the fight and has been wasting his time.

“It’s a big fight, it’s eight weeks away and there’s no communication, nothing,” Whyte told Sky Sports. “Just nothing. Nothing at all. They’re just wasting time messing about.

“It just doesn’t seem real. They’re trying to put me in the same position they did a few years ago, saying: ‘Oh, we’re trying to make the Joshua fight.’

“These big fights take time. There’s lots of things that go on, there’s lots of small print and this team want that and that team want this. There’s a lot of things that go on. It takes a long time to make these big fights.”

Whyte has not fought since gutting out a tough 12-round majority decision win over Jermaine Franklin 21-2 (14) in November. Joshua would go on to defeat Franklin on points over 12 rounds in April in his first fight under new trainer Derrick James.

Whyte is desperate to get revenge over Joshua, but only for the right price.

“This is heavyweight boxing, stranger things have happened. Obviously I will still train and try and stay focused and stay ready in case it happens. Because I’ve been up for fighting Joshua since the day I lost to him in 2015,” Whyte said.

“The score is 1-1 so far. He’s won one. I beat him in the amateurs, he beat me in the pros so I want to get even. I would love nothing more than to have a chance to avenge my defeat.

“I’ll just go to war. I want to go to war because I think that’s a good way to fight him, pressure him, back him up and start getting him on the backfoot as early as possible and I’m strong enough, I’m big enough to do that. I carry enough power obviously to back him up and to knock him out.”