Ben Whittaker says fans will see a new hard-punching style when the Olympic silver medalist makes his professional debut in Bournemouth on Saturday night.
Whittaker claimed a light-heavyweight silver at the Tokyo Games last year and drew a lot of attention with his loose switch-hitting style, but after signing up Tyson Fury’s trainer Sugarhill Steward to guide him into the pro ranks, he says people will notice the difference.
“We knew that everybody knows me as a flashy boxer, but in the professionals, they just want to see people get hurt,” Whittaker said. “I grew up on the Kronk style, I watched Tommy Hearns and people like that, and, sadly, Emanuel Steward is not here so we found the closest thing and that is Sugarhill.
“Sugar does not want to completely change me because you see it sometimes that people go to coaches and they lose what they are good at. Sugar said he won’t ever change that. He’ll still keep my movement and fluidity.
“But at there’s a time and a place when you need to stand there and hurt them and that is what I am going to show on my debut. I’ve slowed down a little bit and each shot I am trying to hurt them. It’s not a point scoring game now, it’s a knockout game. Instead of tapping that jab, I’m going to try to drill it through his head.”
Whittaker faces Greg O’Neill in his debut on the undercard of the cruiserweight clash between Chris Billam-Smith and Isaac Chamberlain, but he already has eyes on bigger things and says he wants to be fighting British champion Dan Azeez within a handful of fights.
“I want to get there as fast as possible, I’m not getting any younger,” Whittaker said. “I’m 25 and the clock is ticking. You see people like Devin Haney and that are world champions.
“But there is a big backlog in the light-heavyweight division. You have Bivol and Beterbiev who have the belts, then you have the Yardes, Buatsis, Callum Johnson, Callum Smith, they are all waiting for their shot.
“If I rushed and got there now, it would just be a waiting game. I want to get as much activity as I can, keep learning my new style and then if something like the British pops up, I will take it with both hands, then move forward.”
Part of his training for this fight took place in Miami, where he trained with Anthony Dirrell and sparred with the likes of Vladimir Shiskin. It was a good experience, but he was glad to get home to Wolverhampton. After this weekend he will be returning to Florida to help Dirrell prepare for a fight with Caleb Plant.
“There were lizards, cockroaches, I couldn’t wait to get on the place, to be honest,” he said. “It was good, I was out of my comfort zone. Walking into the gym you are like fresh meat, an Olympic medallist and they are trying to prove a point.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.
