Boxing news: Dillian Whyte reveals how Deontay Wilder was to blame for Anthony Joshua loss
ANTHONY JOSHUA’s spectacular loss to Andy Ruiz Jr was directly influenced by Deontay Wilder, according to Dillian Whyte.
Anthony Joshua was on the wrong end of the biggest upset in boxing history since James ‘Buster’ Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in 1990 last Sunday.
‘AJ’ was stopped in the seventh round of his American debut, which saw him lose the WBA (Super), WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight titles.
Defeat to Ruiz Jr - a late replacement for the disgraced Jarrell Miller - was the first of Joshua’s professional career.
Joshua’s maiden loss came two weeks after WBC heavyweight king Deontay Wilder registered a devastating one-punch knockout victory over Dominic Breazeale.
In the eyes of many boxing fans, Wilder’s emphatic first-round title defence put pressure on Joshua to see off Ruiz Jr in similar fashion.
Whyte believes his old foe went into his ill-fated title defence with that in the back of his mind and paid the ultimate price for it.
“He may have also felt he had to put on a show after Deontay Wilder’s knockout victory over Dominic Breazeale,” Whyte wrote in his talkSPORT column.
“’AJ’ is that kind of guy who thinks, ‘I want to do better than Wilder, I want to show I am the best, I want to be the people’s champion’.
He may have also felt he had to put on a show after Deontay Wilder’s knockout victory over Dominic Breazeale
“I saw it coming before the fight. I said he needs to focus on himself, forget what Wilder had done and go out there and focus on getting the win against Ruiz.
“Don’t put pressure on yourself and get the job done. Instead, he went out and tried to blast Ruiz – and the Mexican is one tough guy.
“He’s one of those fighters who the more you hit him, the more he gets into it because he’s got nothing to lose.”
Whyte was impressed by Ruiz Jr’s title-winning display but admits he’s jealous the Mexican-born American robbed him of the opportunity to end Joshua’s undefeated run.
He said: “I was the first person to beat Joshua as an amateur and he was the first person to beat me in the pros.
“So I wanted to be the first person to beat him – again – but this is heavyweight boxing.
“If you fight top ten people, you’re gonna get knocked down and lose sometimes. You just have to regroup and rebuild. That’s a part of being a champion.”
Joshua will rematch Ruiz Jr in the UK in November or December, though a venue for their second clash has not yet been decided.