Activity is key for most fighters, and that is especially the case for developing prospects. After ending the longest layoff of his career, David Whitmire is understandably eager to resume his career and continue moving forward.
He is ready to go – and go longer.
“By the end of this year, I want to at least have one or two eight-rounders in, get some good names on my resume, and just keep building from there,” Whitmire, a 20-year-old welterweight, said in an interview with BoxingScene.
Whitmire returned on January 30 after more than nine months off, dropping Jarrod Tennant two times and taking him out via technical knockout in the third round of a fight scheduled for six. The bout was featured on a show in Hanover, Maryland, where the undercard was heavily stocked with prospects from the region. Whitmire grew up in D.C. and now lives nearby in Suitland, Maryland.
Whitmire improved to 11-0 (8 KOs). Tennant, a 40-year-old from California, was 9-7 entering the bout but had never been stopped before, even against other prospects such as Marquez Valle (7-0 at the time) and Justin Figueroa (12-0). Tennant outweighed Whitmire by two and a half pounds but could not deal with Whitmire’s heavier hands.
Whitmire hurt Tennant in the first round with a right to the side of the head. In the second and third rounds, Whitmire took advantage when Tennant came to a stop along the ropes or in a corner.
The first knockdown came in Round 3 as the result of a big Whitmire right hand. Tennant was clear-eyed but barely beat the count and rose on unsteady legs. Whitmire came forth with an onslaught, and when Tennant fell in a heap, the referee waved things off just before the bell.
“I watched [video of the match] just to see some shots I might have missed or some errors during the fight,” Whitmire said. “I barely made any, if that, but just seeing areas for improvement. I could have cut off the ring a little better. Sometimes I was following him. Letting him out of the corner too easy. And that’s about it, really.”
Whitmire was 12 years old when he was introduced to boxing – and to trainer Andrew Council, a two-time world title challenger who fought professionally from 1990 to 2003. Council’s career included a victory over Buddy McGirt and defeats against Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright and Keith Holmes. Whitmire’s mother used to attend Council’s fights and wanted her sons to know how to defend themselves.
At that time, Whitmire’s favorite sport to participate in was basketball. His knowledge about The Sweet Science didn’t go much beyond Muhammad Ali and Floyd Mayweather Jnr. Whitmire recalls how hard the workouts were – all of the running and sit-ups in particular – in his first week in the boxing gym.
But he liked the hard work. And he embraced the individual aspect of the sport where there’s no one to blame for defeat but yourself, contrasted with being part of a team with other players.
Whitmire had approximately 60 amateur bouts before turning pro in early 2023, about a month and a half before his 18th birthday.
“I wasn’t feeling the amateurs anymore. I just felt like I wasn’t growing, or I outgrew the amateurs. Like, the styles were two completely different things for me,” Whitmire said. “As an amateur, I was really hurting a lot of people with body shots and stuff like that but, you know, they don't really count body shots in amateurs. And I was hurting people with it, so, you know, losing like that, it kind of hurt, and I didn’t really like that.”
Whitmire’s body work led Council to nickname him “The Body Snatcher” after the legend who made that nickname famous, International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Mike McCallum. In addition to studying tape of McCallum, Whitmire looks toward former unified welterweight titleholder Errol Spence as an influence.
He’s still young – he turns 21 in March – and only three years and 11 fights into his pro career. As with any developing prospect, there are things he does well and areas in need of improvement.
“I got a great jab. I can think. I got a good mindset, good will, body shots as well,” Whitmire said, before reflecting on what he’s still working on: “Always my defense. But just adding stuff to my arsenal, tricking my opponent, running them into stuff, and just building off of that as well.”
Council agrees with much of his fighter’s self-diagnosis – though he wants Whitmire to snatch the body even more.
“I don’t really have to tell him to jab. He’s going to jab you 1,000 times. He uses his jab. He understands range. He’s not going to let you rush him at all. He fights at his own pace. And he fights from his mind. He’s a very smart fighter,” Council said.
Whitmire’s ready to put that mind and the rest of his tools and talents to work for an extra six minutes. His previous three fights were six-rounders, and prior to this recent TKO win, he went that full length twice. Whitmire is not daunted by the additional distance.
“I know I’m capable of it,” he said. “I get stronger as the rounds go on anyway, so that’ll just really benefit me more, and I feel like I shine more the more rounds I go.”
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
