Say it enough and it sticks, or so the theory goes: Ben Whittaker is a star. Ben Whittaker is a star. Ben Whittaker is a star. Ben Whittaker is a star. Ben Whittaker is a star. And so on. Or maybe that, as good as it sounds, is a bit presumptuous. Maybe it’s better for now to just say this: Ben Whittaker has star potential.
Whichever of those statements happens to be true, it’s fair to say you will have heard at least one of them in the past 24 hours. If you didn’t hear it said before Whittaker bludgeoned Benjamin Gavazi to defeat inside one round last night in Birmingham, you certainly would have heard it in the immediate aftermath. You will have also noticed that the declaration usually came not from Whittaker himself but from those observing him: promoters, commentators, pundits, fans, etcetera. In many respects, it is they who decide who becomes a star and who does not, so it stands to reason that their words will stick and become a chorus. But still, is there not a danger that in all the excitement we forget exactly what is required to become a star in 2025?
Maybe, it’s true, that saying it is enough. Add to that a sexy highlight reel and an ability to go viral and it is plain to see why Eddie Hearn, for example, Whittaker’s new promoter, is calling the Wolverhampton talent the future of British boxing. He is not alone, either, Hearn. There are plenty of others who spotted the talent of Whittaker back when he was still an amateur who have suggested all along that his style would not only transition seamlessly into the pros but that his greater sense of style – the look, the way he carries himself – would help to make him a star.
Clearly, if all that’s required is attention, Whittaker is halfway there. Already as a pro he has garnered a fair amount of that, mostly for good reasons, but occasionally for the wrong. Either way, whether people are captivated by the light-heavyweight’s showboating and his knockouts, or instead turned off by his antics, Whittaker has had an eventful first 11 professional fights, during which he has established himself as a main-event fighter. He hasn’t been a pro long – little over three years, in fact – but we know that much already. We know Ben Whittaker is made for the big stage and that he wants to be and should be front and centre. If ever a fighter was built for it, it is surely Whittaker, the great showman. More importantly, at a time when British boxing has a lack of “potential stars”, the “Surgeon” has seemingly come along at just the right time. It is easy, in that respect, to see why so many are desperate to shout about his star potential until everybody else wakes up to it.
It helps, too, when a fighter keeps adding to their highlight reel, as Whittaker managed to do last night. Last night, against Gavazi, he treated an overmatched opponent the way all future stars should treat an overmatched opponent. He fought the temptation to take it easy, or revert to showboating, and was instead all business from the first bell. He hurt and dropped Gavazi early, then finished him with one of the more vicious fight-ending combinations – left hook, right cross – we have seen in Britain this calendar year. It was, for Gavazi, a painful and somewhat humiliating end to his trip to the UK, whereas for Whittaker it was exactly what was required. Finish fights like that and few will ever question his style or his antics in the ring. Finish fights like that and he demonstrates he has the substance to go with the style and that, first and foremost, he is a man who wants to thrill fans with knockouts.
Last night he did precisely that, with gusto. That’s why this morning it’s all you will see: clips of the knockout. There will be no clips of Whittaker goading his opponent – whether effectively or not – and there will be no clips of Whittaker tumbling out of the ring, as was the case in a scrappy fight against Liam Cameron last year. There will be no accusations of him being a “hype job” or a “quitter” in the comments, nor any negative debates about him on talkSPORT. Those days are now gone, it seems. Now, with Andy Lee on board as his new trainer, and Eddie Hearn on board as his new promoter, Whittaker appears to have everything in place to become a “superstar” the old-fashioned way – whatever that means in 2025.
“For me, what I’m interested in is seeing the legacy he can build in the game,” Hearn told Boxing Scene after yesterday’s fight. “I love the showmanship, I love the promotion, I love the storytelling. But that’s actually the easy job with Ben.
“Ben did it all himself [creating his profile]. We came along and got gifted it on a plate: this perfect promotional superstar that we can just go and do our thing with.
“Although I’ve got a big mouth, I know how to move fighters and that’s what I’m most interested in with Ben. I think if we get it right you could have a guy who could win world championships. I want him to make money, I want him to be a superstar, but most of all, I want him to win championships.”
Ironically, while Whittaker is now backed by the ideal team to elevate his status, and is showing signs in the ring that he is a man of substance, one wonders how easy it will be for a fighter – any fighter – to become a “superstar” when so much of boxing’s coverage is these days hidden away on streaming services and apps. This concern, which is nothing new, re-emerged on Saturday night if only because there were two shows running concurrently in the UK and Whittaker’s audience was therefore potentially halved. That, while somewhat inconvenient, may have just been a one-off, but there can be no denying that Whittaker on DAZN will have been a tougher sell for many than the British heavyweight title fight on BBC2 last night.
Even if Whittaker, 10-0-1 (7 KOs), is a better fighter than Frazer Clarke and Jeamie TKV, the two British heavyweights who boxed on BBC2, that would have had no bearing on the decision of those more likely to watch boxing on terrestrial television than boxing on DAZN. Instead, with their remote in hand, these British men and women would have gone with the easier, more accessible option. They would have settled for two British heavyweights fighting for the Lonsdale belt – a proposition easy to understand, and far easier to navigate. Meanwhile, Whittaker’s one-round KO of Gavazi, the performance of the night, might have gone completely unnoticed. It might have been big on social media – a small victory – but ignored by the public at large. If so, what a shame.
Who knows, perhaps Whittaker and his team are not bothered about such things. Whittaker, after all, could have quite easily boxed on the BBC had he elected to stay with Boxxer, his old promoter, and not migrated to Matchroom a few weeks ago. Yet, by choosing something else, the fighter obviously saw a downside to Boxxer on the Beeb. He will, no doubt, point to the fact that BBC2 is not BBC1 and that the BBC’s next offering, a December 20 fight between Callum Simpson and Troy Williamson, will land on BBC3 – a channel watched by a considerably smaller audience – as justification for his decision. In Hearn, his latest promoter, Whittaker clearly sees a man with the selling power to override any of the possible limitations of being showcased on DAZN for the foreseeable future. He could be right, too.
That said, it wasn’t Ben Whittaker’s knockout of Benjamin Gavazi the British public will have seen on the BBC News this morning, minutes before the Sunday repeat of Match of the Day. Nor will Ben Whittaker be the boxer about whom many of us are asked by members of our family when we sit around a table to eat our Sunday roast. Instead, if there is any interest shown in boxing at all, it is more likely to relate to the British heavyweight title fight in Derby last night. “Did you see how wobbly he was in round 11?” you might well be asked. “I saw it on the news.”
In the meantime, you will be left trying to figure out how to shoehorn the name Ben Whittaker into the conversation and alert these people to his latest performance. You will then work out how many times you need to tell them that he is a boxing superstar before they start to listen and believe it.
