Ben Whittaker can determine his future when he fights Liam Cameron of their headline rematch on Sunday night time, stay on Sky Sports activities.
Once they first met in October of final yr Whittaker, the Olympic silver medallist and quick rising skilled star, by no means meant to seek out himself inverted as he and Cameron each tumbled excessive rope.
The autumn was ugly and the touchdown arduous.
Whittaker had beforehand generated a lot constructive press along with his dazzling skilled performances, liberally sprinkled with cavalier showboating. However with that fall, he crashed via into wholly new territory. The questions being requested of him would wound any boxer’s satisfaction. Ought to he have continued? Was he lucky to complete with a draw?
Sunday’s rematch on the bp pulse LIVE enviornment in Birmingham is a chance for Whittaker to settle these sudden doubts.
“I think we’re starting from a blank canvas. It’s starting from afresh. When round one goes, it’s a whole new fight, a whole different fight. That’s what I’m excited to show,” he informed Sky Sports activities.
“Lots of people can speak this and that however we’ll silence them after we get the win.
“Like he said, he hit the lottery, he’s got the second opportunity. We look at it as: you should have taken your moment then, because that moment won’t come again.”
However Whittaker, in entrance of his residence supporters, will likely be underneath intense scrutiny.
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Ben Whittaker and Liam Cameron went head-to-head after their public exercise and shared a frosty face-off forward of the struggle on Easter Sunday.
“Them changing rooms are going to be horrible for him,” Cameron informed Sky Sports activities. “It’s not nice as it is, never mind all this pressure on him.
“He is acquired to beat me, he is acquired to beat me.”
Whittaker was meant to blaze through British level on a fast track to world class. But defeat to Cameron under these circumstances will divert that career onto a wholly different trajectory.
Even Andy Lee, Whittaker’s new trainer, had to admit: “A loss is disastrous.
“A loss would be tough to overcome, mentally as much as physically,” he continued. “He didn’t have to take this rematch. It shows the character that he wanted this rematch.
“Cameron needs to be revered and if you happen to do not respect him or do not admire the best way he fights or contemplate him a menace, a struggle will go that manner towards him. He is formidable. He is robust, he is aggressive and he is robust and if you happen to’re not ready for that, you are going to come unstuck.”
Whittaker himself is refusing to contemplate defeat.
“My mindset shouldn’t be ‘my profession’s on the road,'” he said. “I am not sitting at residence going: ‘I must win this’. I do know if the proper me turns up, I’ll win.”
For Whittaker, this fight is make rather than break.
“No person needs blips to occur however I am pleased it occurred in a way the place it is introduced me again to earth. It is introduced me again to a place the place I do know the true me,” he said.
“Now I am simply again to me, again to my boxing and that is when one of the best me will present.
“That’s why I just went quiet. I thought I don’t need to say nothing. They can talk if they want to talk. At the end of the day, judgement day will be coming soon.
“I simply develop up. I feel it is the making of me.”
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Talking on Toe2Toe, Matthew Macklin, Barry Jones and Wayne Elcock focus on how Ben Whittaker would possibly method his rematch with Liam Cameron.
Whittaker added: “I ain’t been humbled. It just grounded me in a sense where there’s a lot more things bigger than boxing. There’s a lot more things bigger than my situation.
“With my life there’s been so many ups and downs and darkish instances, so one thing like that, I have been via worse if I am sincere.
“I truly believe nothing can faze me again.”
Cameron has had a tough route. He suffered a four-year ban from boxing after testing constructive for a leisure drug. When he returned, solely in 2023, he had weight to shed and private points to put to relaxation. He wanted the chance when he got here up towards Whittaker and he seized it.
The fallout from the primary struggle led Whittaker to Andy Lee’s boxing health club. That may very well be a superb transfer for his improvement.
However Cameron nonetheless sees weak point in his opponent.
“He wants to blame everyone else, bar himself. The day he blames himself is the day he’ll get better,” the Sheffield man stated. “I think he should take accountability that they tried to rush him with me and he wasn’t good enough on the night.
“Ben’s fairly a deluded individual, so he’ll blame the whole lot else when, actually, it is simply his boxing.”
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Ben Whittaker says he’ll cross the microphone to Liam Cameron as soon as he wins their struggle. The Gloves Are Off is out there to look at now in full.
He does not imagine Whittaker is as assured as he seems.
“I saw that the last time. All this showboating is just to get a rest. That’s all it is,” Cameron stated.
“You get a rest because your opponent either backs off from you and it boosts your confidence. He needs confidence boosting and his showboating’s that. There’s no stopping me going [like] that in the ring.
“I used to be pushing the tempo, however nothing to what I may have. The struggle was early. That is the unhappy factor about it.
“It’ll be hard, won’t it? He’s not human if it’s not going to torture him,” Cameron added. “I’m looking for him to blow out in four rounds and just absolutely pummel him.”
However Whittaker would possibly nonetheless incorporate showboating into his efforts on Sunday, if he needs to show the complete array of his skills.
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Ben Whittaker jokingly threatened Liam Cameron with an egg throughout ‘Gloves Are Off’ – however you may need to tune in to see if the 2 shook palms!
“It opens up a lot of doors, opens up a lot of opportunities,” he stated of the onslaught anticipated from Cameron within the struggle.
“It depends how he comes. If he comes a hundred miles an hour, nice and easy. If he comes to box, nice and easy, because you can’t box me either. So it depends how he tries to play it but we’ve got answers for everything.
“I’ve acquired an A plan, a B plan and a C plan, it simply relies upon how I really feel within the second.
“I think you’ll get the full repertoire.”
Cameron, nevertheless, guarantees to be implacable on this struggle. “He’s lying if he said he took me lightly. Definitely lying,” he stated of Whittaker. “The occasion got to him. It wasn’t going his way.
“I do know that is unhealthy to say, however I am a type of fighters who will struggle to the demise. I can say that about myself. We’ll quickly discover out [about him] within the rematch. I’ve at all times acquired that edge as a result of I do know I can’t stop and he’ll search for a manner out, it is confirmed in his monitor report.
“If I can just win one more fight in boxing and lose every other one, it’ll be this one. [It’s] all I want. No world titles, no British title, this win.”
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Ben Whittaker says he’s ‘counting down the weeks’ to his second struggle towards Liam Cameron, prepared to point out him what he can do.
Whittaker is aware of the irrefutable response to Cameron can be merely to win himself.
“Him goading and saying these things, it’s landed him a big fight, it’s landed him another money fight and it’s kept his career alive,” Whittaker stated.
“Just win and move on, that’s the mindset I’ve got,” he continued. “Ten years down in my career, when I’ve done what I’m supposed to do, we won’t be looking at this fight.
“I’ve turned up the best way I’ve turned up, achieved the proper issues, he acquired the fortunate draw from it and he is acquired the larger headline [fight] now. So truthful play to him. This stuff do occur. However we’ll have to simply cease it Sunday.”
Watch the Ben Whittaker vs Liam Cameron rematch stay on Sky Sports activities Motion from 7pm and Sky Sports activities Fundamental Occasion from 8pm.
