DILLIAN WHYTE said Anthony Joshua “couldn’t deal” with losing to Oleksandr Usyk – and called for a December rematch with his old rival.
Joshua was beaten for the second time in 11 months by Usyk on points, this time a closer split-decision in Saudi Arabia.
His promoter Eddie Hearn revealed AJ could return in December and named Whyte as a potential opponent for next year.
But the heavyweight contender, coming off a knockout defeat to Tyson Fury, does not want to wait around.
Whyte told iFL TV: “Joshua just lost, that’s a rematch that I want and one the British public want to see.
“There will be a lot of interest in that worldwide as well. That’s a big one.
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“Eddie Hearn works for him, he said he wants to fight in December, then let’s fight.
“I’m coming off a loss, he’s coming off a loss; we’ve had two fights already. Why not get it on in December?
“That would be perfect for me. I’ll be ready for December.”
Whyte, 34, beat Joshua, 32, in the amateurs but was stopped in seven rounds when they rematched in 2015 as professionals.
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He had backed AJ to avenge defeat to Usyk, 35, but the Ukrainian pound-for-pound star repeated his brilliance.
Afterwards, Joshua was involved in a bizarre meltdown and threw two of the champion’s belts out of the ring.
And he also produced a rambling post-fight speech, which AJ later apologised for.
Whyte said: “He tried his best, and obviously Usyk was better than him on the night, obviously.
“It wasn’t a hard fight physically for him, but it was a hard fight mentally for him.
“And I think he’s going through a lot of changes, a lot of pressure and a lot of things at the minute
“I think it all got too much for him, and he broke down in the fight.
“You could see that he was showing signs of pressure and stress after the fight and he couldn’t deal with it.
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“A lot of these guys don’t know how to deal with defeats. No one wants to lose, no one wants to deal with defeats but life is full of ups and downs.
“You’ve got to be able to deal with the ups and the downs. You can’t just start crying and losing control just because he lost.
“I’ve had losses in my career but I came back. I’m used to climbing from the bottom up.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
