The former heavyweight world champion's future in the sport was thrown into doubt by his comprehensive loss to Daniel Dubois in September but his rival believes that he has a lot still to offer in the ring.

Whyte told Sky Sports News: "He's still got a lot left in the tank and he's still a big draw. And as you can see in the fight, he's still a big puncher. He had Dubois going before Dubois landed the finishing blow.

"It's hard to say, he's young, he's strong, he looks in amazing shape. He's still got a lot of fight left in him."

Whyte suggested that too much emphasis is placed on defeats in the heavyweight division and felt it was the reason that prevented the top fighters coming up against each other.

He said: "People put too much emphasis on a defeat in heavyweight boxing. That's why a lot of fights don't happen.

"They don't get made because people put a lot of emphasis on win, lose and draw instead of enjoying the fact that two top guys are fighting each other now, which wasn't happening a few years ago."

Whyte previously suggested that he was mystified by Joshua's "weird" behaviour in the ring against Dubois as he was sent to the canvass four times by his opponent.

He told talkSPORT: "AJ seemed to be very good or very bad, it's never in the middle.

"Last few years he seems to be there or he's not there. He's achieved so much for the game so I don't want to be disrespectful.

"He's there or not there, AJ's a weird one. You can never understand what he's going to do.

"If you look at the fight, AJ is just standing there spaced out and staring for five minutes. He seemed like he wasn't there.

"It was so weird, he was jabbing and retreating. He wasn't doing anything offensive."