David Haye has backed Dillian Whyte to produce an improved performance if he earns a rematch with Anthony Joshua.
The 'Body Snatcher' will return to the ring for the first time since losing to Tyson Fury in April, when he takes on unbeaten Jermaine Franklin at the OVO Wembley Arena on Saturday night. A win for the British star could set up a second meeting with long-term rival Joshua, who is open to a showdown in his return next year.
Whyte's first meeting with Joshua took place in 2015 and ended in a KO defeat for the underdog. Former world champion Haye has stated that both men will have learned from their losses and expects them to put on a show if a fight takes place in 2023.
"They are both experienced but they have both lost fights," Haye told Mirror Fighting when assessing how Whyte and Joshua have changed since their opening fight. "Whyte has lost two fights with Joshua losing three, so yeah they have lost a little bit but losing doesn't make you bad. It gives you experience, you know now how to not lose if you have learned your lesson from it.
"They both know how emotions can boil over as it did in their fast fight, so as I said they are definitely more experienced even from that. It is likely that they will put on an even better performance if it does transpire after the fight this weekend. So does he still have it physically to go and beat Jermaine Franklin to get that fight against Anthony Joshua and beat him.
"There is a chance of that happening definitely, particularly after Anthony Joshua's losses to Oleksandr Usyk on the spin. His confidence is at an all-time low so I think it is a good time for Dillian to be getting back in the game."
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Joshua has lost in back-to-back fights against Usyk and could face Whyte in his first fight back since that defeat. An all-British clash is believed to be the frontrunner for the former two-time champion's return, with promoter Eddie Hearn suggesting a fight could be made if Whyte beats Franklin.
The Brixton native has vowed to even fight Joshua when he is 60-years-old as long as he is given an opportunity at revenge. “I’ll fight Joshua when I’m 60. I hope [we have a trilogy] but I don’t know where he is mentally and how long he wants to fight. He has achieved a lot, he’s done a lot, he’s got a lot of finances, made a lot of history.
“He was fighting Usyk and he kept on talking about me and I said to him, ‘bro relax, focus on your fight because it’s a hard fight, bless you and be safe, we can talk about it after your fight and my fight’ – it’s just that we want to beat each other up.”
