{"id":693800,"date":"2026-07-15T23:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T23:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/693800\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T23:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T23:06:19","slug":"callum-smith-urges-ben-whittaker-to-face-british-contenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/693800\/","title":{"rendered":"Callum Smith Urges Ben Whittaker To Face British Contenders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770669047_552_google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he\u2019s a good fighter. I think the talent\u2019s definitely there,\u201d Smith said to talkSPORT Boxing. \u201cI think he\u2019s improving under Andy Lee\u2019s last few performances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d like to see his level of opposition step up a little bit, but he\u2019s doing everything that\u2019s needed of him. He\u2019s not going 10 rounds with the opposition he\u2019s fighting now. He is getting rid of them the way he should.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whittaker has surged up the rankings with a string of dominant victories, but Smith believes recognizable British names would answer the remaining questions surrounding the Olympic silver medalist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think one of those names would be ideal,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAt this stage of his career and his age, I think that\u2019s where he needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith argued that victories over respected domestic opponents would carry more weight than stopping little-known international challengers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the fact with them being domestic as well, the public will probably buy into it, and you get more respect over beating one of them,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe could bring a good fighter over, but if he\u2019s foreign and he blows him away right away, people just assume he was a nobody who was there to be knocked out. If he beats a familiar name who people know can fight, then I think he\u2019ll gain a lot more respect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith also credited Andy Lee for tightening Whittaker\u2019s approach inside the ring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he\u2019s a little bit more patient,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe throws with intent, and there\u2019s a little bit less showboating. When he gets in the ring, he means business a little bit more now, which I think you\u2019ve got to as you step up through the levels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Smith sees genuine world-title potential in Whittaker, he believes the 29-year-old has now reached the stage where performances alone are no longer enough. The next step is proving himself against opponents capable of testing him over championship-level competition.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Youtube video\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" nopin=\"nopin\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784085131_951_hqdefault.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think he\u2019s a good fighter. I think the talent\u2019s definitely there,\u201d Smith said to talkSPORT Boxing. \u201cI&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-693800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693800","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=693800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}