Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
we found ben whittaker all wrong? British boxing Fans have long had a complicated relationship with showmen, sometimes preferring the likes of “Prince” Naseem Hamed and Tyson Fury, and sometimes demanding more humility from braggarts. So, in 2025, where does Whittaker fit in?
“Surgeon” has made his way to a strange place over the past 12 months. The Olympic silver medalist almost exactly a year ago, who is now undefeated as a professional, Fell out of the ring in a fight in which he was strugglingWith defeat looking clearly likely, Whittaker disappeared off the top rope, too injured to continue, and his brief fight with Liam Cameron was ruled a draw.
That doesn’t mean the 28-year-old Whittaker planned a fantastical exit to maintain his undefeated record; That allegation was spread by some people, yes, but not in these pages. Despite this, the pressure on Whittaker – who went viral for his flamboyant dissection of Khaled Gradia in early 2024 – was so tremendous before their February rematch With Cameron, the rising star took a social-media break at a critical juncture in his career.
This worked to his advantage, as did his change of coaches, as Whittaker teamed up with Tyson Fury’s co-trainer Andy Lee. Headlining a hometown show in Birmingham, Whittaker stopped Cameron in the first round,
“It was definitely excitement, relief, everything,” explains Whittaker. Independent Now, “But it was more irritation – if that’s a word? I don’t know if I went to school or not, but irritation, if that’s a word! I was just annoyed, because I thought: ‘This is what should have happened in the first fight.’
“So yeah, it was like, ‘Yeah, it’s good, we’ve shut people up,’ but really, me, Andy, my dad, my brother and everyone else, we knew it was supposed to happen. [in the first fight]So, we just said: ‘Thank God it’s over, now we can move on with our careers.’
Moving on also means moving on from boxxer matchroomled by charismatic eddie hernWhile Whittaker does not need anyone to speak for him, his partnership with the promoter has been deemed a “perfect match”. It was launched earlier in October with an imitation of a famous jerry maguire SceneIn which Hearn plays the lead role of Tom Cruise.
“We knew it was going to happen,” says Whittaker, who revealed last week that he was close to joining Matchroom early in his career. While Matchroom has aired its shows on DAZN for some time, Boxxer offered Whittaker the Sky Sports platform; But the promotion’s contracts with Sky and Whittaker have now expired ,Boxxer shows to air on BBC from November,
“Luckily, with Boxxer, I now have some experience as a professional,” Whittaker adds. “I’ve got a good platform, so the platform wasn’t really an issue. It was just: ‘Who can root for me in the best way in my career to get me the right fights, the right titles, the right rankings?’ And [Hearn] Have done this before with previous fighters, so to me, if you’ve done it before, you can do it again.
Enjoy 185+ fights per year on DAZN, the global home of boxing
Never miss a fight from top promoters. View on your device anytime, anywhere.
Advertisement. If you sign up for this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism at The Independent.
Enjoy 185+ fights per year on DAZN, the global home of boxing
Never miss a fight from top promoters. View on your device anytime, anywhere.
Advertisement. If you sign up for this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism at The Independent.
“And I’m in a position where you’re not getting young anymore; you need the right fight, the right speed and activity, and I can do all those things. [I want to do],
Hearn, for his part, tells the media including Independent: “We actually agreed to terms with Ben Whittaker about three years ago. We filmed a promo, he was throwing money in the air in the promo shoot, and I was looking at him, thinking: ‘We’ve got one here.’
“it [new] The offer came, and we said: ‘We’ve got to take it.’ I think his profile is arguably the biggest in British boxing at the moment, even with AJ [Anthony Joshua] And rage in terms of following and things like that. If you get it right, this guy will fill stadiums around the world.
“But his development is really important, and for me as a fight fan, I look at the quality of the fighter, and I think this is a guy who can step up and mix it up with all the best and become world light-heavyweight champion.”
Whittaker will face German unknown Benjamin Gavazzi on November 29 in Birmingham, while Hearn hints at a trip to the US in early 2026, before returning to the UK for a “very big fight” in early 2026. Hearn has also hinted at a fight at some level between Gavazzi and divisional gods Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev, with Willie Hutchinson named as a potential next step ahead of potential domestic clashes with the likes of Callum Smith and Joshua Buatsi.
For his part, Whittaker is surprisingly restrained on stage today, but he delivers a signature quip at the end, saying of Gavazzi: “I’d chop and dice him, and turn him into a German doner kebab.”
Yet there is another side to the surgeon. “It’s a joy to coach Ben,” Lee says on stage. “Even though he’s a showman and has bravery, he’s also very humble, even if people don’t believe it!”
Really, people might not believe it. But as Whittaker begins the next phase of his career, he has a chance to win over the public again, in a different way, and perhaps on an even bigger scale.