The Ben Whittaker whirlwind continues as the serious part of his career begins
Whittaker is on the outside, looking in at the more established Britons at his weight, but he is calculating his next few moves...
Ben Whittaker is on the very edge of recognition in arguably boxing ’s hardest division, and right now he is two fights away from the light-heavyweight limelight. The light-heavyweights have been dominated for nearly a decade by the stone-cold duo of Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev . They have one win each in fights against each other, but they have been untouchable in their other 26 world-title fights.
Bivol returns at the end of May, but Beterbiev remains in recess. Still, the division is ferocious. On Saturday, Whittaker is now the main attraction at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena in a test against Argentina’s Braian Suarez; Whittaker was upgraded last week when local boxer, Callum Smith , withdrew from his fight with David Morrell.
Smith against Morrell was a rare, old-school clash between two men inside the world’s top five, with just a hint of a world-title fight as the bounty. Ben Whittaker, a silver medalist for Team GB, is unbeaten as a pro (Getty) Whittaker has not had a smooth boxing passage from the Olympic final in Tokyo in 2021 to the main event on Saturday. In late 2024 he tumbled from the ring with Liam Cameron , and the fight was declared a technical-decision draw.
It had been an ugly melee before the dramatic end. The fight was close before the tumble, and the critics were harsh after the end. “The first fight with Cameron was what I needed,” insisted Whittaker.