Dillian Whyte: Joseph Parker ‘too much of a coward’ to beat Anthony Joshua

Ever since he came onto the scene a few years ago, Dillian Whyte has been known as a strong talker in the heavyweight division. Now that he’s a legitimate top contender, he’s still talking as good a game as he brings to the ring.

Whyte (23-1, 17 KO) faces former WBO titleholder Joseph Parker (24-1, 18 KO) next weekend, and had some strong words about Parker’s loss earlier this year to Anthony Joshua, who also handed Whyte his only professional defeat:

“It was cowardly. Six or seven rounds into a fight, if you’re in the home fighter’s country against a world champion and a golden boy, you know you’re behind on the scorecards, there comes a time when you’ve got to go after it. I feel that he was too much of a coward to make that decision. He had waited for that opportunity for his whole life.”

Well, that doesn’t leave much room for interpretation. Whyte is saying flat-out that Parker fought like a coward against Joshua, that he was too much of one to possibly win, and that’s why he lost.

I mean, whatever you can say about Whyte’s loss to Anthony Joshua, he did go for it as much as he could, getting stopped in the seventh round of their 2015 bout.

But none of this means much once the bell sounds next week, unless the words get into Parker’s head and make him fight worse, which would be a surprise. Whyte’s going to have to deal with Parker in the ring in eight days, and that’s a whole different ball of wax.