Eddie Hearn, promoter for former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, says the British star is taking a huge risk by agreeing to fight Dillian Whyte in a rematch.
On Thursday, the second fight was officially announced for August 12 at the O2 Arena in London.
They met the first time back in December of 2015, with Joshua getting rocked in the early rounds but coming back to knock Whyte out in the seventh.
Joshua is close to a deal to face former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in the month of December in Saudi Arabia.
Based on the financial aspects of the Wilder fight, Hearn explains that Joshua is risking a small fortune by facing Whyte.
Should Joshua lose, he could still move forward with a fight against Wilder – but there would be financial ramifications.
“This one is wild because AJ has got the Wilder fight locked in for December. We had meetings last week with the Saudis. Obviously, that’s one of the biggest fights in boxing, and he wanted to fight in the interim. You know, he’s been working with Derrick James, he wanted to have that fight and he was insistent it was Dillian Whyte. I wasn’t over the moon because I know it’s dangerous,” Hearn told Talk Sport.
“It’s a fight that is built off emotion, they don’t like each other. You saw what happened last time at the O2, it’s going to be an absolute firefight on August 12. That’s why it’s so dangerous. You’ve got that Deontay Wilder fight in December, he could’ve just waited and had an easy, gimme fight at the O2 – but he’s decided to roll the dice.
“I don’t know how the Whyte fight goes, but we’ve been told categorically that the deal on the table is not the deal if he loses to Dillian Whyte. They didn’t want him to fight Dillian Whyte. It was almost like, ‘Please, don’t fight Dillian Whyte. You don’t need to. We’ve got this fight in December. But AJ was like, ‘No. I want to fight.’