{"id":197341,"date":"2025-10-08T11:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T11:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/197341\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T11:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T11:02:12","slug":"matchrooms-signing-of-ben-whittaker-is-a-power-play-that-changes-british-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/197341\/","title":{"rendered":"Matchroom\u2019s signing of Ben Whittaker is a power play that changes British boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Whittaker\u2019s move from BOXXER to Matchroom<\/a> reshapes boxing\u2019s power balance in Britain, and it got me thinking about the sport \u2014 and life \u2014 back in England.<\/p>\n

Out of everything, I miss my family and childhood friends the most \u2026 and Marmite.<\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re American and you don\u2019t know what Marmite is, you probably won\u2019t want to find out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I used to think it was a byproduct of brewing beer, but, as I\u2019ve matured, I\u2019ve realized we\u2019re not supposed to know. We just accept that it\u2019s sold in glass jars, is thicker than motor oil and, atrocious looks aside, it\u2019s delicious. Most people in the U.K. add it to a grilled cheese, which is good, but combining it with cream for a Marmite gravy to pour over mashed potatoes is great for your Sunday roasts.<\/p>\n

The reason I bring it up is because there\u2019s a saying back home. You either love Marmite or you hate it. There\u2019s no in between. And, when it comes to combat sports, Whittaker is a Marmite boxer. You\u2019re either going to love him, like I do, or you hate him, like you weirdos.<\/p>\n

This is the type of fighter Matchroom is inheriting.<\/p>\n

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Some might think that\u2019s a negative, but it\u2019s actually the ideal foundation \u2014 because the worst thing in boxing isn\u2019t to be hated. It\u2019s to not even be known. It\u2019s to resonate so poorly with fans that the people aren\u2019t even aware of when your next fight is.<\/p>\n

Worse, still, is if they don\u2019t even care.<\/p>\n

In the fight game, you want fans to feel something. Anything. You want them to care regardless of whether that\u2019s for good reasons or bad. Floyd Mayweather knew this better than anybody when he leaned into his polarizing “Money” personality after bursting onto the scene as the sport\u2019s “Pretty Boy.”<\/p>\n

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Though Whittaker is more Emanuel Augustus<\/a> than Mayweather, Floyd often cites “The Drunken Master” as the most difficult fighter he ever faced in his 50-0 career. And nobody has had an easy night standing opposite Whittaker, who’s this generation\u2019s pugilistic troll, booping people on the nose and dancing away while gesturing to a jeering crowd.<\/p>\n

He pulls off moves no boxing coach in Britain would ever teach, and he does so with a smile and a dance like it was textbook all along.<\/p>\n

Nothing about Whittaker\u2019s schooling is conventional. His real inspiration was Mario Kindel\u00e1n, the great Cuban fighter whose blend of precision, rhythm and swagger disguised technique as mischief. Whittaker has that art-form down, too, as he\u2019s a saucy showman, which is an approach that has already irked fans as well as fighters.<\/p>\n

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Not all fighters, though.<\/p>\n

“He’s great and so entertaining,\u201d UFC middleweight Michael “Venom” Page, another Marmite fighter from England, told Uncrowned.<\/p>\n

I spoke to Page last year as he was preparing to fight UFC welterweight Ian Machado Garry in Las Vegas, two weeks after Whittaker danced his way to a unanimous decision win over Eworitse Ezra Arenyeka in London. Whittaker’s win was not without controversy, though, as his constant showboating infuriated his opponent so much that Arenyeka head-butted him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Page called the foul \u201cdisgusting,\u201d but offered constructive criticism to help Whittaker\u2019s development. His head movement is great, Page said, but \u201che dips in the wrong place, which can sometimes see him get caught.\u201d The key, Page added, is not letting the showboating dominate the tactics. \u201cIf you spend too much time doing it for the crowd reaction, it\u2019s going to get harder as he steps up in competition,'” Page said. “That\u2019s not going to win you fights.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHis hands are amazing. Slip one, slip another, then land your shots. Don\u2019t just slip, slip, slip. You can\u2019t win on defense-only, but \u2026 he\u2019s an exceptional fighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whittaker has fought twice since then, both of which came against Liam Cameron, exchanging a technical draw before finishing Cameron with a nasty second-round stoppage<\/a> this past April.<\/p>\n

With expert poise, footwork and shot selection, it didn’t take long before Whittaker found his range and rhythm in the rematch and toyed with Cameron, thanks to check hooks and two-punch combos. Then it all came to an end before the six-minute mark. Whittaker countered Cameron with a crisp right hand midway through the second round and forced a referee’s stoppage from the barrage of follow-up blows. Whittaker, of course, then overzealously celebrated in the faces of his opponent’s coaches.<\/p>\n

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That mix of artistry, arrogance and attention-grabbing spectacle is likely part of the reason why Matchroom brass like Eddie Hearn and Frank Smith were quick to pounce. In statements sent to Uncrowned, Hearn called Whittaker \u201cphenomenal\u201d and \u201cthe greatest signing to make in boxing today.\u201d Smith agreed, calling him \u201ca future legend of British boxing,\u201d and a \u201cgame-changer\u201d of a signing.<\/p>\n

And Smith is right.<\/p>\n

Whittaker’s move is the most significant domestic transfer for the British scene in 2025.<\/p>\n

It also shifts the power balance between BOXXER and Matchroom.<\/p>\n

Ben Shalom\u2019s BOXXER has had significant platforms on Sky Sports and now BBC<\/a>. And part of its strategy on those channels has been to build a younger audience with fresher-faced fighters like U.K. superstar Chris Eubank Jr., the Azim brothers Adam and Hassan, and Whittaker, who was arguably being built to become the face of BOXXER’s entire operation.<\/p>\n

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Losing Whittaker is a PR and commercial blow, particularly as he heads to Hearn \u2014 an arch-rival of Shalom’s.<\/p>\n

Matchroom, meanwhile, is in desperate need of younger blood who has the potential to drive the bulk of its boxing revenue moving forward, as Anthony Joshua and Katie Taylor have done for more than a decade apiece. “AJ” and “KT” are both at the tail-ends of their respective careers, and Matchroom has been chasing a domestic spark to offset the losses Joshua and Taylor\u2019s near-future retirements will bring. Whittaker is a credible candidate to take the baton; young, flamboyant and with an in-ring style that should appeal in the U.S., if Matchroom were to ever take “The Surgeon’s” show on the road.<\/p>\n

[Yahoo Sports TV is here! Watch live shows and highlights 24\/7<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready for the next step,\u201d Whittaker said. \u201cWith Andy Lee in my corner and Matchroom behind me \u2026 I will become even more of a household name and one day become a world champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Matchroom, though, has its work cut out. It\u2019s not an easy sell right now.<\/p>\n

In Whittaker’s first fight with Cameron, both fighters fell through the ring ropes. And, with Whittaker unable to continue, the bout was declared a technical draw. This led to accusations of a quitter’s mentality, with Cameron even claiming Whittaker \u201c100 percent quit [because] he was exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is difficult to shake off such a perception. Just ask Daniel Dubois, who was perceived to have quit in his maiden loss to Joe Joyce, when he took a knee under relentless pressure in 2020. Any notion that his career at the elite level was over couldn’t have been farther from the truth considering, since then, Dubois shared the ring with Oleksandr Usyk (twice), and battered Joshua, Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic.<\/p>\n

A thrilling win in a stadium fight can do wonders for a career. It just so happens that stadium fights are Matchroom\u2019s forte.<\/p>\n

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Like Marmite, Whittaker won\u2019t ever please everyone, but that\u2019s the point. Some will love the showmanship, others will turn their nose up at the alleged arrogance of arguably the most charismatic and viral-ready boxer under 30 in the U.K.<\/p>\n

But after years of the same names, and many of those close to retirement, British boxing needs someone who makes people care again.<\/p>\n

Love him or hate him, Whittaker makes you feel something, and that\u2019s worth every jar on the shelf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benjamin Whittaker\u2019s move from BOXXER to Matchroom reshapes boxing\u2019s power balance in Britain, and it got me thinking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[97771,703,35963,49,48,97772,97773,29023,82,17053],"class_list":["post-197341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-benjamin-whittaker","tag-boxing","tag-boxxer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-liam-cameron","tag-marmite","tag-matchroom","tag-sports","tag-whittaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}