{"id":17451,"date":"2026-04-20T03:06:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/17451\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T03:06:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:06:49","slug":"whittaker-i-want-to-be-one-of-britains-best-ever-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/17451\/","title":{"rendered":"Whittaker: I want to be one of Britain’s best ever fighters"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday night, the 28-year-old light heavyweight from West Bromwich scored a one-sided first round knockout of Argentina\u2019s Braian Suarez<\/a> at Liverpool\u2019s M&S Bank Arena.Although the talented Whittaker<\/a> (11-0-1, 8 KOs) has yet to breach world class, he is determined to leave a lasting mark on the sport. <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course you want to be a world champion but I want to go down as one of Britain’s best ever boxers,\u201d he said in the ring after beating Suarez.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve got a great bunch of fighters, past and present, but when it’s all said and done I want them to say, ‘That Ben Whittaker was good.’<\/p>\n

The win was Whittaker\u2019s third since he began working with Andy Lee.<\/p>\n

The 2020 Olympic silver medalist arrived at the former WBO middleweight champion\u2019s gym in Dublin, Ireland in the aftermath of his controversial October 2024 draw with Liam Cameron. <\/p>\n

Whilst many believed that the gritty Cameron had highlighted Whittaker\u2019s shortcomings, Lee remained a believer in his ability.<\/p>\n

In their first fight together, Whittaker stopped Cameron in the second round of their rematch and he followed that by knocking out Benjamin Gavazi<\/a> inside a round.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s demolition of Suarez reconfirmed Lee\u2019s belief that Whittaker is a special talent. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s only going to get better and it’s scary,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said that in the [pre-fight] press conference, it’s scary because I don’t know how far or how good he’s going to get because, to me, he’s good enough to beat them all right now. He just needs the experience to match the skill, the craft, and the talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Matchroom secured Whittaker\u2019s signature in October, Eddie Hearn knew that he was signing a fighter capable of creating headlines and viral moments but is now convinced that Whittaker also has the ability to climb to the top of the 175 pound division.<\/p>\n

When Callum Smith withdrew from his WBO interim light heavyweight title fight with David Morrell, Hearn made the decision to elevate Whittaker\u2019s fight with Suarez into the headline slot. <\/p>\n

Whittaker justified that faith and Hearn will now use the one-sided win as a launchpad. In June, Whittaker will cross the Atlantic to fight on the undercard of the junior middleweight fight between unified WBO and WBA champion, Xander Zayas, and Jaron “Boots” Ennis and will then return to the UK to headline in Birmingham. Providing everything continues to go to plan, Hearn foresees Whittaker challenging for a world title at some point in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve finally got someone in this country who’s got all the superstar potential but could go out and beat them all. Just enjoy this journey because this young man is very, very special,\u201d he said after the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may think he’s cocky. You may think he’s arrogant but I’ll tell you something now, he’s not. He’s a man of faith. He’s a real solid individual as well. Quiet guy, doesn’t go out, doesn’t push the boundaries, doesn’t mess around. He’s dedicated to the sport. He’s got an amazing team and we’ve got every opportunity to do something very, very special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday night, the 28-year-old light heavyweight from West Bromwich scored a one-sided first round knockout of Argentina\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3121,120,3124,119,13,8085,8084,3123],"class_list":{"0":"post-17451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-object-object","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-boxing-articles","11":"tag-boxing-news","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-featured-article","14":"tag-light-heavyweight","15":"tag-the-ring"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116434832080778413","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}