While Ben Whittaker and his new promoter, Eddie Hearn, were busy reenacting the iconic “Show me the money!” scene from Jerry Maguire to announce their collaboration on Monday, Whittaker’s trainer, Andy Lee, waited with typical calm for his fighter to return to their gym in Dublin, Ireland.
It is there, in Dublin, Lee and Whittaker have struck up a fruitful relationship in recent months, one built on trust and a shared outlook on life. That their personalities seem so markedly different has only made the two of them work harder to bond over the things they have in common: a love of the sport, a desire to achieve, the need for routine.
Together, Lee and Whittaker have found both a way to work and a way that works. Now, with Matchroom Boxing onboard as Whittaker’s latest promoter, Lee feels his fighter has the ideal platform to not only express himself and be better understood by the public, but capitalise on his momentum and get busy.
“I think it’s a good match for Ben,” Lee told Boxing Scene. “But, for me, as long as he’s getting regular fights, and the right fights, that’s all that matters. It doesn’t matter to me who the promoter is. It’s just about having structure and a plan for Ben at this stage in his life and career. We need to put in place the right schedule for him to develop – because he still needs some developing.
“It’s difficult because his profile is so great that people expect him to be going into big, meaningful fights every time he steps into the ring. But things have to be done right. When he does go in for that step-up fight, he has to be ready for it. With Matchroom I believe there’s the will to do that with him.”
Certainly, if early indications are anything to go by, Matchroom are as strongly invested in the Ben Whittaker project as they have been for any, domestically, in recent years. If that wasn’t evident in the well-produced and admittedly smart promos with which they announced his signing on Monday, the belief they have in Whittaker was encapsulated in the comments attributed to Hearn that same day. “He is phenomenal,” said Hearn of his new addition. “This is the greatest signing to make in boxing today. Ben Whittaker is a generational talent and we are ready to take his career to a whole new level.”
As Whittaker’s new promoter, it is the job of Hearn and those at Matchroom Boxing to generate hype on Whittaker’s behalf and to facilitate the light-heavyweight’s priceless ability to do the same thing on his own.
Lee, on the other hand, as Whittaker’s coach, must stay somewhat grounded and centred. Though he too will be tempted to get carried away, and sing his man’s praises, Lee also knows, having scaled the heights himself, the important distinction between performance and performance.
“I’m pleased with the relationship we have formed in a short time,” said the Irishman. “From his public persona to the person you meet and are with every day, it couldn’t be more different. The ring antics, which are part of his character, are for fight night, but, away from that, he’s a gentleman. He’s super, super talented. It’s so exciting when you’re in the gym with someone who can pick things up so quickly. From one day to the next he’ll have been taught a move and then have it perfected. It’s a really easy job training him.
“It's not like he takes things for granted, either. He works extremely hard. He probably works too hard. When we were training for the [Liam] Cameron fight, there were weeks when I had to give him two or three days off because he was too fit – too ready almost. We never had to train to get fit for that fight. He’s super talented, but also an extremely hard worker.”
On the face of it, the partnership of Whittaker and Lee would fall into the category of “Odd Couples” – yes, even by boxing’s standards. In one corner you have Whittaker, an extrovert and a showman, while in the other you have Lee, someone whose appeal as a fighter owed everything to his mild-mannered demeanour and his everyman qualities.
To imagine the two together, and even getting on, will have come as a shock to those who choose only to believe in public personas and first impressions. However, Lee, a man who has rubbed along with all types in his time, knows only too well that fighters contain multitudes.
“It was me who actually reached out to him after the [first] Cameron fight [last October],” revealed Lee, who also trains Joseph Parker, Hamzah Sheeraz, and Paddy Donovan in Dublin. “I just saw the talent he had and said to myself, this guy is too good to let this happen – not let it go to waste, but not be guided right. A fighter like Ben just needs guidance. With me and him, it’s more like Emanuel [Steward] with Wladimir [Klitschko]. It’s more about what you do outside the ring. It’s more about building a philosophy of approaching a fight. He’s a pleasure to be around and we have spent a lot of time together, away from the gym as well as in the gym. I’ll tell you the kind of person he is. He’s the kind of person who flew to New York to support Hamzah [Sheeraz, in his fight against Edgar Berlanga] and flew to Belfast to support Paddy Donovan [in his rematch with Lewis Crocker].”
Perhaps it could be argued that Ben Whittaker, despite appearances, is more a team player than a single-minded superstar. Perhaps, despite everything we think we know about him, there is more to the man than meets the eye. Or perhaps he can be a bit of everything: a shapeshifter, both babyface and heel.
Perhaps that, in the end, is the definition of a star.
“I think so,” said Lee. “He’s tall, good-looking, and he can fight – and fights with flair. He’s been super talented from a young age. When I was listening to him, and getting to know him, I discovered how quickly he had moved through the ranks as an amateur. He went from having a few fights to being on the GB team to being on the elite team and sparring all the top guys.
“I think he’s a special person and a special talent. But he has to be guided right. Everything so far has been done off his own back. He plans all his own walkouts – has them in his head – and everything that has gone viral has been his own doing. I’m not sure how many millions of followers he has on social media, but it’s all his own doing – his antics in the ring, the walkouts, the style of victory.”
Whittaker, 9-0-1 (6 KOs), has always had style, even if some critics may disagree. Style, after all, is a matter of taste. Some moves Whittaker makes in the ring are deemed stylish, hence the rate at which his clips are shared online, while others have been deemed in bad taste or have simply left a bad taste in the mouth of opponents/observers.
In his last fight, however, the reaction to Whittaker’s style was fairly unanimous. Most who watched him stop Liam Cameron inside two rounds were suitably impressed. They were impressed by his style that night and they were impressed to see how the significance of that particular fight – a rematch of a controversial “technical draw” – was reflected on his face, in his mannerisms, and in the extent to which he showboated en route to a career-best win.
“I never showboated [as a boxer], but you’ve got to allow people to express themselves,” said Lee when asked for his thoughts on Whittaker’s approach. “I like to have the fighters express themselves in the ring.
“There’s a point when it becomes disrespectful and I wouldn’t like that. You don’t like to punch down. If someone tries taking your head off and you make them miss, it’s fine to then celebrate with some showboating. But if you’re dominating a guy and then you do it, I don’t like that. But, listen, we’ve had one fight so far [against Cameron] and he was pretty much punch-perfect. There wasn’t room for showboating.”
For Ben Whittaker, it would appear things are now starting to get serious.
