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Twice shot and stabbed, Dillian Whyte knows that he is the ‘anti-Joshua’

'Anti-Joshua': Dillian Whyte: Getty Images
'Anti-Joshua': Dillian Whyte: Getty Images

Both times Dillian Whyte was shot, his first thought was less one of survival but more of fear.

The fear that gripped him when struck in the leg — the bullet passed through the first time, the second time he gouged it out himself — was how his mother would react.

“I really didn’t want my mum to know what I’d been doing,” he recalls of those dark days in his youth. “My biggest fear was disappointing her.”

The heavyweight admits his instant reaction may not be what you’d expect given it was, as he puts it, “a pretty bad situation”.

The 29-year-old Brixton resident — he has lived there since moving from Jamaica aged 12 — wants to escape his past but cannot help recalling it.

Dillian Whyte celebrates victory after the WBC Silver Heavyweight Championship contest against Robert Helenius in October Photo: Getty Images
Dillian Whyte celebrates victory after the WBC Silver Heavyweight Championship contest against Robert Helenius in October Photo: Getty Images

“I was shot and stabbed but that’s another part of my life and in the past,” says Whyte, who prefers not to dwell on the attacks in London. “I could have taken a very wrong path like a lot of inner-city kids.

“Thank God I’m alive and I changed my course. I made smart choices rather than be killed or be a murderer.”

Instead, he wants to look to the future and the prospect of a fight against Lucas Browne, a potential stepping stone between him and a shot at Deontay Wilder’s WBC belt. Browne has been sparring with Dereck Chisora, whom Whyte beat on points and bad blood still persists between them.

“Dereck Chisora’s no more than a sparring partner, that’s all he is,” says Whyte. “He’s strapped for cash so I maybe can employ him after this as a sparring partner.”

Victory would likely pave the way for an encounter with Wilder followed potentially by a rematch with Joshua, whom he defeated as an amateur but was beaten as a pro in seven rounds in December 2015. Whyte is adamant he is focusing solely on Browne and not the riches that lie ahead but goes on to describe himself as the anti-Joshua.

“You have to respect him for what he’s done and I know he’s had some dark times,” he says. “But he’s got the good-boy role — that role’s taken. So, instead I’m the guy that got knocked back but has never given up.”

Whyte talks a lot about the dark times in his youth but for him the worst time was when boxing, his panacea, was denied him after he tested positive for the stimulant Methylhexaneamine in 2012 from a supplement and was handed a two-year ban. The decision still riles him: “You have guys on steroids and they get barely six months, some that get no ban at all. So that still sucks.”

Ironically, his opponent at the O2 on Saturday has twice fallen foul of the doping authorities, once for clenbuterol, which Browne claimed was the result of his food and drink being spiked, and another time for ostarine, blamed on an over-the-counter supplement.

While on the sidelines for his own ban, Whyte was tempted back to the dark side but returned to the ring in 2014 refocused. He says he felt lower when forced out of the ring than when he was shot and stabbed in his youth. Now, he likes to be an example to youngsters in Brixton where he still lives. He adds: “If I can change, then anyone can.”

The fight is live on Sky Sports and is available for £7.98 with a Now TV day pass. Click here for more information.