I have a feeling that AJ goes for the offensive against Whyte right in the very first round. So it is either he hits Whyte and gets a stoppage or his offense will stop once Whyte starts to connect as well. Once Whyte will connect his own punches and AJ feels it hard, AJ's mindset will change and his confidence will go down and will shift into boxing trying to outbox Whyte. I do think Whyte will run out of gas and will slow down in the later rounds so AJ can take advantage either by knockout or by outboxing him.
On the other hand, Eddie Hearn opened up his 3-fight plan for AJ provided he keeps on winning.
AJ has to be careful as he has been knocked down before, so he isn't as durable as he thought. Maybe he will have huge confidence since this is a rematch, and he has already beaten Whyte before, so he has already won the mind game. As long as he follows the game plan well, I'm sure he'll have an edge in winning this fight. It's not necessary to KO Whyte; what's more important is that he wins impressively, as a positive outcome of this fight could open up another championship opportunity for him.
If he could surpass Whyte, I doubt he could pass the next level which is against Wilder.
AJ's confidence will be boosted by a lot of Spence wins this weekend over Crawford but I also think he will lose some of his confidence if his stablemate losses a beatdown. Still, he should be able to overcome Whyte who's slower and is known to fatigue in the late rounds.
I have a feeling that Wilder might be in the same mental situation as AJ. In Wilder's last fight, he was backing down and was the one getting hunted which means he was scared of getting KO'd again. Heleneus is old and slow and was countered but I can imagine if it was someone quicker and mobile, Wilder might get sparked if he can't land first. Nonetheless, that win might also bring back much of Wilder's confidence.
^^ Yes, I think it's a good plan money wise for Eddie and Joshua as well. Having to fight Dillian Whyte here, bring back Joshua mind and his confidence and then look for Wilder which we have been waiting for many years, when they were still has no defeats in their record and when the Gypsy King is not yet making a comeback. But everything has change now, Fury comes back, takes all the glory beat Wilder and then Joshua losing to Ruiz and it's the start of his being reluctant to pull the trigger. But at least he can still make a lot of money and maybe this 3 HW's can smell the Saudi money, LOL. Perhaps we are talking here about minimum $50M-$100M waiting for them if they all make a fight in Saudi whether as undercard or facing each other. (Fury vs Usyk, Wilder vs Joshua in same card).
That would've been a huge super fight between undefeated champions for the undisputed championship. But Wilder later admitted that he chickened out even if the offer from Matchroom and DAZN was already so huge and there's also the rematch clause which happens in the US if the first match happens in the UK. Wilder is always known to duck fighters and was even holding the undisputed championship hostage many times because his team was unwilling to unify with former lineal 3-belt champion Wladimir Klitschko citing the Bronze Bomber is not yet ready for the Ukrainian.
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