Anthony Joshua defeated Dillian Whyte in 2015 for the heavyweight Commonwealth and British titles, but while Joshua went on to become a unified world champion, Whyte fell short in his attempts to land a world title.
That clash in 2015 was an aggressive showing from both fighters, and with the pair in their 30s and looking to position themselves for one final tilt at a title, they are fighting again live on DAZN PPV and DAZN on August 12.
The DAZN Boxing Show discussed whether the pair would fight with similar styles, or if they were more nuanced in their approaches now.
Akin Reyes said: “It was a very entertaining fight. Since then, AJ has taken a couple of losses but accomplished a lot more, and Dillian Whyte has taken some wins and also some tough losses.
“Do these guys know enough about each other regardless of what they’ve accomplished or their failures, for it to still be an entertaining, non-stop brawl?”
Barak Bess answered: “I would say normally we would say yes, but I don't think so. I think Anthony Joshua has a new trainer in Derrick James and he has a new outlook on his fighting skill and style, and he showed that against Jermaine Franklin: He cares about defence.
“The last fight was eight years ago against Dillian Whyte. He didn’t care about defence, he just wanted to get him out of there. They both actually looked the same. Dillian Whyte hurt Joshua in that fight, it was just back and forth.
“But I think we have a different AJ, a more defensively sound and responsible AJ and we got somebody who is still learning new tricks. We don’t even know what we’re going to get when we get him next.
“And Dillian Whyte the same way. They both got new trainers because they both saw they needed to change something, so you might get a different Dillian Whyte. But at the end of the day, we’re going to see a battle.
“I don’t think he’ll fight it like he fought the second Andy Ruiz fight and keep Whyte at bay. Eventually the long arms of Dillian Whyte and the pressure of Dillan Whyte is going to be throwing some hooks and somebody is going to get hurt in there.”