By Edward Chaykovsky

Heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte (16-1, 13KOs) has gone into surgery for a shoulder injury that he suffered during last Saturday's knockout loss to domestic rival Anthony Joshua.

According to Whyte, he suffered the injury during the second round of the fight, when he got Joshua in some trouble after clipping the Olympic gold medal winner on the chin.

Whyte's trainer wanted to stop the fight. The boxer wanted to go out on his shield and lasted until the seventh round when Joshua finally finished him off. Prior to that fight, Joshua had not gone past the third round.

If not for the injury, Whyte believes that he could have knocked out Joshua out.

Whyte told Sky Sports News HQ: "I had him out on his feet, he was stumbling around. I hit him and he stiffened up, but at the same time I hit him my shoulder went so I couldn't really finish him off."

"But I'm not going to make any excuses. My trainer said 'do you want to stop the fight' and I said 'I'm not going to let these fans down, I'm going to be the true warrior I am and go out on my shield'. And that's what happened."

"I believe I can beat him, and not only beat him, I believe I can knock him out. Everybody was giving me one round, two rounds, half a round. It was a 50-50 fight up until I got caught.

"I proved to everyone in Great Britain I'm just as good a fighter as him. We're both heavyweights, we both can bang. One of us was going to go to sleep, and unfortunately it was me, but that's heavyweight boxing."