Former world champion and Sky Sports expert George Groves says there’s no call for a Ben Whittaker ‘witch hunt’ after the strange ending to the Liam Cameron fight, which saw them both crash out of the ring…
I saw Ben Whittaker throughout his training camp. I was taking my fighter Lucas Roehrig up there. Lucas was sparring with Ben and Ben was looking sharp. Lucas was looking great but Ben was looking sharp. I thought he was doing well, handling it all as he seems to do.
His profile now, I think is fair to say, has far exceeded his accomplishments so far as a professional. The spotlight’s on him so there comes pressure.
Whittaker was in there with definitely an underrated fighter in Liam Cameron, who’s a lot better than people give him credit for. He had that great fight with Lyndon Arthur and he’s probably improving time and time again.
It certainly wasn’t the best Ben Whittaker that we’ve seen. Make what you will of the ending, it was a bit strange, but I think he’s got to address that. There will be a rematch, I hope, so that he can put that to bed. It might end up haunting him otherwise.
I don’t know whether he should have carried on or not. If he wasn’t right and didn’t carry on and got away with a draw, where otherwise if he’d carried on and he would have got beat, then he’s made the right decision. If it was the opposite, he’s made the wrong decision. It is what it is.
But so far so good in his career. I think he’s been boxing great. He is one of the hottest prospects commercially as well as talent-wise in Britain right now for where he’s at. I think he’s in a good spot.
I think it will blow over pretty quickly. Right now it might feel like this is what he’s going to be remembered for. But the truth of the matter is, especially in this day and age, people like to move on quickly. News doesn’t last long and he’s only one good performance, or an interesting social media post, away from it getting forgotten about.
As long as he leans into it, owns it, no doubt will capitalise from it. His profile rises fight on fight. This time it hasn’t risen from some showboating that went viral or a spectacular knockout, it’s something else. But no publicity is bad publicity.
I think the rematch should happen next. I can’t see how it doesn’t need to. Unless it’s hard to make through money or contracts, I can’t see Whittaker shying away from it.
There’s talk that he might change his training team at the moment. I know he works with his amateur coach Joby Clayton who seems like a phenomenal coach, Whittaker’s a great fighter so that makes sense. But I think he wanted a bit of experience in the pro ranks from a coach.
He might look for someone else, maybe someone UK based. That would be interesting, might add something to him. He’s an exceptional talent, I’d just like to see him punch with a bit more authority.
If he fights Cameron again and does a conclusive job on him, it totally puts it to bed. I wouldn’t go on a Ben Whittaker witch hunt right now. You’ve got to take the good and the bad of being a high-profile fighter.
He’s a long way off Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol because they’ve got so much skin in the game, got so much experience, 12 round fights under their belt.
I still believe that Ben Whittaker is a potential future world champion and, who knows, if it takes him a couple of years to get there, we might not have Beterbiev or Bivol there or they might be starting to slide.
I expect Whittaker to improve. I’d certainly like to see him operating at the top level in future. If he doesn’t I’d be disappointed.
