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AS Dillian Whyte extinguished one rivalry on Saturday night at the O2 he rekindled another. He ended another brutal brawl with Dereck Chisora courtesy of an almighty left hook in the 11th round. It was a grim knockout but his fellow Londoner recovered to leave the ring on his own steam.
The two have had plenty of run ins, not only their exciting contests but outside of the ring too. Chisora notoriously threw a table at Whyte before their first fight and even at their latest weigh-in the two camps had to be kept apart as a scuffle threatened to break out. But finally the spite has subsided. Whyte even sat down backstage with Chisora after their last contest.
“Everyone loves a knockout but I was a bit worried. I thought maybe he wasn’t going to get up again,” said Whyte. “What a tough man, what a brave man as well. To come back from defeat so many times and keep rising back to the top. Credit to him where it’s due.
“We were back stage chatting. [We’ve done] nearly 23 rounds. You can’t do those rounds with someone and not respect them.
“It’s my time now. I’m still improving, I’m still getting stronger.”
But even from the ring Whyte hurled some choice words at his old enemy Anthony Joshua. The two had fought before as amateurs and once for the British title. Since then Joshua went on to become the unified heavyweight champion of the world but he stepped on to the ring apron to answer Dillian.
Whyte however was not happy with what he heard. “Joshua’s talking rubbish. He’s just talking rubbish. I’m not going to sit around and wait for him [to fight Deontay Wilder]. I’m not going to waste three or four months of my career waiting for him, waiting to hear what he’s doing. My career needs to progress,” Dillian said. “I’m about to hit my prime now. So I need to act.
“You need dancing partners in boxing. We had the option of fighting Chisora or fighting some cabbage in America, no one wants to see me do that.”
“I thought he [Joshua] would say let’s do it but he was umming and ahhing,” Whyte said. “There’s signs that he doesn’t really want to fight.”
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