Dillian Whyte wants to send Anthony Joshua into retirement but questioned whether his rival would take a rematch

Dillian Whyte says Anthony Joshua would be the ‘perfect’ next fight but questioned whether his team would risk a rematch after a stunning knockout loss to Daniel Dubois.

Joshua is considering his options after Tyson Fury’s retirement announcement left him without an opponent for a planned comeback fight at Wembley this summer following a fifth-round stoppage loss to Dubois in September.

Whyte’s rematch with Joshua was called off in August 2023 after the Brixton man returned ‘adverse analytical findings’ in a drugs test, but the 36-year-old was cleared to resume his career after an investigation confirmed that it had been caused by a contaminated supplement.

The 36-year-old, who returned with a stoppage of Ebenezer Tetteh last month, told Sky Sports: “[Joshua] Sounds perfect for me. They don’t need to ask me twice. They talk about me as an option, but they haven’t said anything to me, so it’s just negotiation tactics from them. But I’m up for the fight and I’m ready to fight again.

“If he wants to fight, then all they’ve got to do is call me. I’m always up for fighting AJ. No problem for me. However, personally, I think he’s finished.

“I think he made a huge mistake not taking the immediate rematch with Dubois. It was a world title fight, a great payday and the perfect opportunity to avenge his knockout loss. He will forever have to suffer the memes of being face-planted at Wembley by Dubois.

“When I lost to [Alexander] Povetkin, on the way back to my dressing room, I crashed Eddie Hearn’s live interview and demanded the immediate rematch. Nothing else mattered until I beat him in the rematch. It’s a mindset thing. I want to fight AJ and Tyson again because they both beat me, although it’s one-all with AJ [in his first amateur fight, Whyte knocked down and defeated Joshua].”

Deontay Wilder has also been mentioned as an option for Joshua, despite back-to-back defeats, including a knockout loss to Zhilei Zhang last June.

“Wilder is the biggest fraud in the history of boxing,” said Whyte. “A complete coward who avoided me for five years. He’s a disgrace and has since been exposed repeatedly. Shouldn’t he be chasing rematches with Parker and Zhang? He’s a fool and has no shame.”

But Whyte has heard that Joshua remains eager to settle their bitter rivalry.

“He will turn up to fight me. If me and AJ fight, if we’re 100 years-old, he’ll turn up to fight me,” said Whyte.

“Me and him will always be a good fight. We just have that chemistry. I don’t want to lose to him, he doesn’t want to lose to me, and we want to prove each other wrong. We want to knock each other out so it will always be a good fight.

“Eddie [Hearn] has publicly stated Joshua could fight me next, but whether he will or not I don’t know whether he or his people want it, then we wait to see. I would love to retire him.”

Joshua has been absent from the ring since the Dubois loss and Whyte is confident that he would deliver another crushing defeat to the former world champion.

“Maybe AJ was underestimating him because he used to train with him and had seen Dubois quit a couple of times as well,” said Whyte.

“Maybe he was thinking, I’ll just land my punches and he’ll quit but it was strange. I don’t get it. He had his hands down, he was jabbing and retreating, it was a strange fight.

“The fact that you’re fighting a massive puncher, a guy who weighs 17 stone plus, he’s just as muscly as you, just as strong as you, and you fight with your hands down and throw a lead uppercut with nothing in front of it. It’s crazy.

“No way [could he fight like that against me]. Last time I tagged him pretty well with his hands up, so imagine if he had done that [against me].”