{"id":292094,"date":"2025-11-30T22:09:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T22:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/292094\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T22:09:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T22:09:16","slug":"would-morrell-crush-whittaker-in-a-u-s-debut-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/292094\/","title":{"rendered":"Would Morrell Crush Whittaker In A U.S. Debut Fight?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Hearn says he wants to take British light heavyweight contender Ben Whittaker to America for his next fight after knocking out Benjamin Gavazi in one round last Saturday night in Birmingham, England.<\/p>\n

The Matchroom promoter Hearn states that the U.S fans would \u201clove\u201d Whittaker\u2019s style of fighting. He wants to see who he can find for the unbeaten WBC Silver 175-lb champion Whittaker (10-0-1, 7 KOs) to fight.<\/p>\n

David Morrell as a Potential U.S. Opponent<\/p>\n

The U.S.-born top 10 light heavyweight contenders aren\u2019t well known to American fans. It\u2019s unlikely that Hearn would want to take the risk of matching Whittaker against some of the American-based contenders like these two:<\/p>\n

David Morrell \u2013 based in Minneapolis, Minnesota
\nOleksandr Gvozdyk \u2013 based in Camarillo, California<\/p>\n

If Hearn wants to have Whittaker win over U.S boxing fans, matching him against Morrell or Gvozdyk would be the way to do it in the short term. The problem is, the 28-year-old Whittaker would have a high probability of losing to both fighters. He\u2019d be exposed as a fake by them.<\/p>\n

Whittaker is a great domestic talent, but he\u2019s not shown the kind of ability as a pro or amateur that suggests he would beat the 27-year-old Morrell (12-1, 9 KOs) or the former WBC light heavyweight champion Gvozdyk (21-2, 17 KOs). Still, if the idea is to turn Whittaker into a star in America, matching him against these two is the way to fast-track that goal.<\/p>\n

Hearn is not going to turn Whittaker into a star by being sly about it, matching him against lesser U.S fighters, hoping to take a backdoor route to making a big name out of him in America. We\u2019ve seen the matchmaking Hearn has done with his past American Matchroom fighters, like Shakur Stevenson, putting him in with an electrician, Josh Padley, perhaps hoping to impress U.S fans. It didn\u2019t work. Americans didn\u2019t like what they saw.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of pressure from DAZN in the UK to keep him over here because he does massive numbers. But they\u2019ve got to buy into development as well. But I think he\u2019d do really well in America. He has a massive fanbase there already socially,\u201d said promoter Eddie Hearn to Ring Magazine<\/a> about Ben Whittaker\u2019s next fight after blowing out Benjamin Gavazi in one round last Saturday night.<\/p>\n

How U.S. Fans Perceive UK-Based Light Heavyweights<\/p>\n

If Hearn keeps Whittaker in the UK, he\u2019ll be viewed by American audiences as a domestic-level fighter along the same lines as Anthony Yarde, Joshua Buatsi, Callum Smith, and Willy Hutchinson. Interestingly, those are fighters that Hearn is excited about matching Whittaker against, which suggests he\u2019s going to be just a UK-type fighter, and not viewed as true world-class. U.S fans\u2019d view him as a bigger version of Conor Benn, a guy that is seen as a YouTuber-type of fighter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019d [Americans] love his style and his showmanship. Yeah, it would suit us to fight an American opponent. We\u2019ll see who that can be. There\u2019s so many fights to be made. Everyone is talking about Buatsi, Yarde, Callum, and Benavidez is calling him out. We\u2019re not going to be short of opponents.<\/p>\n

Evaluating the Safer U.S. Names for Whittaker<\/p>\n

Richard \u2018Popeye The Sailor Man\u2019 Rivera
\nDeon Nicholson
\nNajee Lopez<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just got to get it right with Ben. He\u2019d had 11 fights. He\u2019s a superstar in the making. He\u2019s a worldwide talent. We\u2019ve got to get the experience before we make the big gamble,\u201d said Hearn.<\/p>\n

The Age Problem: Nearly 29 and Still Being Protected<\/p>\n

Whittaker is nearing 29 years old, and that\u2019s not young for a fighter who is still being matched carefully by a promoter. He\u2019s older than the 27-year-old Morrell, who is already a former two-division world champion with only 13 pro fights. If Whittaker isn\u2019t the real thing, it\u2019s useless for Hearn to maneuver him around the dangerous predators at 175. He can\u2019t be protected into his 30s from the wolves, like Morrell, David Benavidez, Gvozdyk, and Imam Khataev.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/p>\n

Robert Segal has been a key voice at Boxing News 24, delivering fight news, previews, and analysis with a direct, insider edge. Covering the sport for over a decade, his work highlights champions, contenders, and rising talent worldwide. Known for his sharp ringside perspective, Robert brings fans closer to the action with straightforward, knowledgeable reporting.<\/p>\n

Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb Would Morrell Crush Whittaker in His U.S. Debut?<\/p>\n

Last Updated on 11\/30\/2025 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn says he wants to take British light heavyweight contender Ben Whittaker to America for his next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-292094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}