David Haye: Anthony Joshua is the real deal and I'm backing him to force a stoppage

'The real deal': Anthony Joshua
(LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images)
David Haye11 December 2015

Dillian Whyte goes into tomorrow’s fight against Anthony Joshua with the knowledge he’s beaten him before but that doesn’t mean a thing.

Okay, it might give Whyte a personal psychological boost but that was only Joshua’s third fight as an amateur and Whyte had come into amateur boxing from professional kickboxing so it was hardly a fair fight. If anything, Joshua will be buoyed by the fact he took it to the distance.

Suggesting his opponent might win because of it is a bit like saying you beat someone at five-a-side football seven years ago so now you’ll be playing for Manchester City or at the World Cup. I am not convinced Whyte’s at that highest level yet.

But what’s different with Whyte to many of Joshua’s previous professional opponents is that he doesn’t come in expecting to lose and simply to pick up a pay cheque. He genuinely believes he can win this and he looks in great shape as well.

But the problem from the outside looking in is that he hasn’t fought anyone with the power of Joshua and I don’t know if he has the skills required to negate AJ’s all-out attacks.

For one, he has a very high head guard so he doesn’t move his head that much, which I think will be a problem, and I’m not sure his legs are quick enough. Speed will be crucial and we simply do not know if Whyte has enough to ask the right questions.

The other issue is a physical one. Sure, he appears to be in fantastic shape but I’m interested to see how his shoulder holds up. He tore a rotator cuff in his last fight three months ago. For me, a similar injury has taken about a year to mend fully so that’s a question mark when it comes to him chucking his right hand.

So, the more I look at both fighters, the more I have to go with Joshua. He’s fought the bigger calibre of opposition and he’s used to the big stage. Everything else is new to his ring rival. I can see Whyte providing Joshua with his toughest test so far but I still expect him to force a stoppage.

Joshua looks to me like he’s the real deal — it doesn’t look like there are many chinks in the armour although I’ve not seen him be hit square on the chin yet by a puncher so question marks remain until he is.

But I remember the same was said about David Price — he was billed as the next Lennox Lewis — and then he got knocked out three times in fairly quick succession.

So I’d say that Joshua’s a solid prospect but he’s still not proven.

There will be question marks about whether he can go the distance and those will remain until he does that. But we can’t criticise, all he can do is fight those put in front of him and he’s done that very well. He should just stick to what he’s doing as it’s clearly working.

David Haye takes on Mark de Mori at The O2 on January 16. For tickets to #HayeDay visit axs.com. #HayemakerIsBack

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