• Heavyweight

Whyte targeting Joshua as feud reignites

British heavyweight Dillian Whyte has called on Anthony Joshua to enter the ring so the pair can settle their long-running feud.

Whyte, who is set to return to boxing after serving a two-year doping ban, defeated Joshua as an amateur in 2009 and claimed that the Olympic champion was still hurting from the loss.

"He's so insecure and so jumpy about losing to me," Whyte told Buncey's Boxing Podcast. "When anyone tries to ask him about it, he says 'it was 10 years ago, I was only beaten by one point'.

"I say 'listen, we fought at the end of 2009 and we haven't been boxing for 10 years, so that doesn't make sense. We've only been boxing for five or six years!'

"It wasn't 10 years ago, and I didn't win by one point. I won unanimously and I knocked him down."

Despite that early defeat, Joshua went on to win gold at the London Olympics and has now embarked on a promising professional career, with victories in each of his nine fights so far.

Whyte, on the other hand, was slapped with a two-year ban in 2012 for using a supplement that contained a controlled substance and is now preparing to make his comeback at London's Camden Centre on Friday.

Joshua, who next fighths Michael Sprott in Liverpool on Saturday, reacted angrily when reminded of the loss to Whyte during a September interview with boxing channel iFL TV.

"I don't really care about that," he said. "Come on, I was 18-years-old. I'm a beast now. I don't want to start blowing my own trumpet but don't regard me as the fighter I was seven or eight years ago, because if you're dumb enough I'll knock your f****** head off.

"I don't count that as a loss, I count it as a great experience that built me into the man I am now."

Whyte, however, claimed there had been no hard feelings between the pair until Joshua's comments changed the nature of their relationship.

"We fought a while ago and as far as I was concerned that was it," he said. "Even when he was in the Olympics, I was supporting him, saying there was no way he could lose.

"But then a couple of months ago he ripped some stuff about me to the press. He later said he didn't mean it and that they'd misinterpreted him, but it p***** me off to be honest."

Both fighters have been part of Wladimir Klitschko's recent training camps in Austria and Whyte admitted he had taken the opportunity to confront Joshua about his words.

"We were out in Austria at a training camp and I pulled him up on it. I said to him 'listen, we definitely have to fight again because I don't like what you said and, where I come from, people can't say things like that about other people. We're professionals so let's settle it in the ring.

"He's gone on and done well so far as a pro, so I just leave him to it. I just hope we do get to fight because I think it's a good fight for Britain. I'll be ready by January."

Dillian Whyte lands a blow on Hastings Rassani during their January 2012 fight © Getty Images

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