{"id":559783,"date":"2026-05-01T01:53:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/559783\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T01:53:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:53:18","slug":"ben-whittaker-booked-for-us-debut-as-next-fight-announced-on-xander-zayas-vs-jaron-ennis-undercard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/559783\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Whittaker booked for US debut as next fight announced on Xander Zayas vs Jaron Ennis undercard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Whittaker is set to face Richard Rivera on the undercard of Xander Zayas vs Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis next.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old British light heavyweight star stopped Braian Suarez inside three minutes<\/a> earlier this month, having already been lined up to make his US debut<\/a> if he won.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Whittaker scored his 11th win as a pro in Liverpool this month by knocking out SuarezCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Whittaker’s victory over Suarez came five months after ‘The Surgeon’ made a successful debut under the guidance of Eddie Hearn<\/a> and Matchroom Boxing.<\/p>\n

After a fierce two-fight rivalry with fellow Briton Liam Cameron<\/a>, Whittaker made light work of Benjamin Gavazi in Birmingham<\/a>, stopping the German in round one.<\/p>\n

He now joins a stacked card, co-promoted by Top Rank and Matchroom, with Zayas defending his WBC and WBO super welterweight titles<\/a> against the highly touted Ennis in the main event.<\/p>\n

Billed as ‘The Pursuit of Greatness,’ the bouts take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on June 27.<\/p>\n

READ MORE BOXING NEWS<\/p>\n

Also on the card, 22-year-old Emiliano Vargas faces Bryce Mills at super lightweight, and Jahi Tucker takes on Euri Cedeno.<\/p>\n

Whittaker ‘can become world champion’<\/p>\n

Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith joined talkSPORT Breakfast with Ally McCoist and Gabby Agbonlahor<\/a> this week and was asked about Whittaker’s promising future.<\/p>\n

“I think he can be a superstar of the sport,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

“Activity has always been the key since we signed him; he’s going to have had three fights in seven months.<\/p>\n

“And I believe he can become a unified world champion.<\/p>\n

“We’ve just got to build him at the right pace. When you look at all the names out there, he has all the star power to become a global superstar.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Whittaker has been tipped to reach the greatest heightsCredit: PA<\/p>\n

“That’s why we were so excited to get him and made a big play to sign him.”<\/p>\n

Whittaker made his professional debut in July 2022 and has only fought on British soil thus far, apart from two contests against Cameron and Petar Nosic in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

More Matchroom shows this week<\/p>\n

Matchroom Boxing continues its momentum with two shows in Australia and the UK this week.<\/p>\n

Interim WBC super bantamweight champion Skye Nicolson defends her title against Mariah Turner on Wednesday at the Melbourne Pavilion in Victoria.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Conah Walker faces Sam Eggington in an all-British headliner at Civic Hall in Wolverhampton on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Boxing schedule<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out\u00a0talkSPORT.com’s\u00a0 boxing schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Whittaker is set to face Richard Rivera on the undercard of Xander Zayas vs Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[83265,191542,2560,6102,101,56,54,55,192193,192194],"class_list":["post-559783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-ben-whittaker","tag-ben-whittaker-next-fight","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-xander-zayas-vs-jaron-ennis","tag-xander-zayas-vs-jaron-ennis-undercard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559783","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=559783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}