{"id":789760,"date":"2026-10-02T15:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/789760\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T15:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:28:11","slug":"ben-whittaker-quotes-james-toney-as-he-teases-audacious-jump-in-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/789760\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Whittaker quotes James Toney as he teases audacious jump in weight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Whittaker<\/a> sees himself eventually following in the footsteps of James Toney, who famously competed at heavyweight after winning his first world title at 160lbs.<\/p>\n

The American permanently moved up from middleweight in 1992, having confessed his love for Burger King after edging a majority decision against Mike McCallum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He then became a three-division world champion but, despite outpointing John Ruiz in 2005, a failed doping test rendered his WBA title triumph a no-contest.<\/p>\n

Whittaker, meanwhile, believes he could be on a similar trajectory to the Hall of Famer and, while hopefully remaining on the clean side of his sport, may end up facing David Benavidez at heavyweight.<\/p>\n

Speaking with a selection of media members, including Boxing News, the 29-year-old gave his best Toney impersonation when asked about the potential Benavidez clash.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever say never, man. You see the size of my dad \u2013 I\u2019ll be a heavyweight soon! For now, I\u2019m in my own lane. But I would like that [Benavidez] fight down the road so, after this [his light-heavyweight campaign], it\u2019s \u2018Burger King, baby!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, I want to make sure I dominate my weight. Then I\u2019d like to move up; I think it would be good to go through the weights.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to dominate his current division, Whittaker must first win his scheduled 12-rounder against Conor Wallace and, in turn, become the IBF\u2019s leading contender at 175lbs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whether he succeeds in doing so, we will find out this Saturday at Birmingham\u2019s Utilita Arena. But Whittaker, of course, is supremely confident that just over four years as a professional has prepared him for this moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s all working perfectly to where I wanted to be [at this point]. I\u2019ve had the little setbacks of injuries \u2013 and moving from [Ben Shalom\u2019s] Boxxer to [Eddie Hearn\u2019s] Matchroom \u2013 but it\u2019s all working out at the right time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very matured, I feel like I\u2019ve learned a lot and I think my last performance [a second-round stoppage of Richard Rivera] showed that I\u2019m moving a bit different now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of those stylistic improvements under head coach Andy Lee, Whittaker described his transformation as going from the \u201cDrunken Master\u201d \u2013 referencing the 1978 film starring Jackie Chan \u2013 to \u201cThe Surgeon\u201d, capable of slicing through opponents in a clinical manner.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it would appear that he is hitting with greater sharpness and authority. But also, the Olympic silver medallist feels that, compared to his GB teammates at Tokyo 2020, he is making the most noise as a professional.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of my [Olympic] crop, I think I\u2019m one of the most talked-about and exciting [fighters]. No shade on them [his GB teammates], of course, because they were like my family at one point.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut out of all of them, really, I\u2019m doing what I\u2019m supposed to do and, when I become a world champion, it\u2019ll be nice. I\u2019ll probably rub it in [Olympic gold medallist] Galal [Yafai\u2019s] face.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, at least, Whittaker does appear to be on a promising trajectory but, as he enters arguably a career-toughest assignment this weekend, he will certainly need to be more of \u201cThe Surgeon\u201d than the \u201cDrunken Master\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Whittaker sees himself eventually following in the footsteps of James Toney, who famously competed at heavyweight after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-789760","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\/789760","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=789760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}