Dillian Whyte has surgery on injured shoulder following knockout loss to Anthony Joshua

Dillian Whyte has undergone surgery following his heated defeat to long-time rival Anthony Joshua last weekend. The formerly unbeaten heavyweight, who took Great Britain's 2012 Olympic gold medallist seven rounds during the main event of Matchroom's impressive 'Bad Intentions' card before being knocked out by a vicious uppercut, has been troubled by a shoulder injury in recent months.

By his own admission, the problem stopped him from regularly throwing his left hand during an otherwise comfortable victory over American veteran Brian Minto in September. The 27-year-old has also suggested that it prevented him from piling further pressure on to Joshua after rocking him with some heavy punches in round two.

"I had him out on his feet, he was stumbling around," he told Sky Sports. "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."

The sour relationship between Whyte and Joshua made for an entertaining build-up and enthralling spectacle at London's O2 Arena. But while the former has stated his desire to schedule a rematch, it seems that his rival could instead be in line for another domestic bout against Dereck Chisora in April 2016.

Chisora was a late addition to proceedings on 12 December, added to the bill following Leeds featherweight Josh Warrington's decision to withdraw from the second defence of his WBC international title against Jorge Sanchez due to a virus. The controversial former European champion, who has fought the likes of Tyson Fury, David Haye and Vitali Klitschko during his professional career to date, cruised to an easy third-round stoppage of Jakov Gospic.