ANTHONY JOSHUA was torn apart by Dillian Whyte for having “no real spine or backbone” amid rumours of rematch between them.
Joshua is taking a break from boxing following consecutive defeats to Oleksandr Usyk and failed talks to face Tyson Fury.
His promoter Eddie Hearn said the winner of Whyte’s November 26 fight with Jermaine Franklin would be a frontunner to box AJ next year.
And Whyte has wasted no time in igniting a war of words with the man he beat in the amateurs but lost to six years later in their 2015 thriller.
He told JOE: “You could be speaking to him, and he just looks a bit spaced out and a bit absent-minded and a bit vacant.
“He’s done a few weird things as well. We all do weird things but there’s no consistency to what he does.
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“He puts on this act and pretends he’s a good boy, and all of a sudden, he wants to be a bad boy and he wants to rap, and he wants to talk about notorious gangsters and stuff.
“But at the same time, he’s a good boy and an advocate. There’s no consistency.
“That’s what I mean, he’s weird, no consistency, no real spine or backbone, just a bit all over the place.”
Whyte, 34, returns for the first time since defeat to Fury, also 34, at Wembley Arena.
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And with a rematch against Joshua, 33, in the pipeline if he beats American Franklin, 29, he wants his old rival to stick around.
Whyte said: “I hope he stays in boxing, and I hope he stays of solid mind because I want to fight him.
“I want a chance to get my rematch, so I hope he stays of solid and sound mind.
“I don’t want him to go crazy and then retire and f***ing become a rapper or a priest or something.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk