Ben Whittaker’s recent scare against Conor Wallace has raised questions about whether he has the attributes needed to win a world title, says Sky Sports expert Matthew Macklin.
After controlling the fight from the start, Whittaker was troubled by a left hand from Wallace in the 10th round and then looked ragged in the 12th as he repeatedly slipped to the canvas before clinging on to claim a points win on Saturday in Birmingham.
Whittaker’s victory lined up a shot at the IBF light-heavyweight belt which is held by unified champion Dmitry Bivol, but Macklin believes the Olympic silver medallist is not yet ready to challenge the Russian.
Macklin told Sky Sports: “Ben has been on a run of pretty spectacular performances, hasn’t he? That said, if we’re honest about the calibre of opposition, we know it’s pretty low for him and where he is aiming towards being.
“All of a sudden, they stepped it up again with Conor Wallace. He boxed really well for most of the fight, but nonetheless, at the end of the fight, he struggled.
Ben Whittaker fought through some adversity late on to beat Conor Wallace on Saturday
“He got caught and then struggled to shake off the effects of that shot. He recovered momentarily, but not properly. He got his head together a little bit, but was still hurt because you could see he didn’t really regain control of the fight.
“I think he needs more than one [fight before Bivol], probably a few.
“While Conor Wallace is a nice boxer, you wouldn’t put him in the category of your Bivols and your Callum Smiths.
“Look at the fight between Callum Smith and Joshua Buatsi, and what those two went through in that fight, and then you see how Whittaker unravelled on Saturday night, there’s no way you’d say he beats those two guys.
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“He has the skill, the sleekness, the speed and the savvy to mix it with those guys, but has he got the toughness, the chin, the stamina, the power, the hardness to mix it with those guys over 12 hard rounds? He hasn’t shown that so far.
“That’s not to say that Ben isn’t tough or hard. But we can only judge him on what we’ve seen, and we’ve seen him unravel a couple of times.
“In the first Liam Cameron fight, he was unravelling and then obviously they both fell out the ring. Fair play to him, in the rematch, he came out and looked brilliant, but against Conor Wallace, he was boxing well, controlling it, but then gets nailed a couple of times and, all of a sudden, he starts to unravel.
“Fair play again, he got through it. But against a Bivol or a Callum Smith, or a Buatsi or William Hutchinson, would he have got through it against those guys? Probably not.
Is Ben Whittaker ready to fight IBF light-heavyweight title holder Dmitry Bivol?
“I think [his trainer] Andy Lee has done a great job with him, but I also think that there’s only so much you can do in the gym. You’ve still got to get the experience on the night, under the lights, in a real fight against real high calibre opposition.
“What’s happened with Ben in his career, is he hasn’t fought enough high level opposition. If you look at who he has boxed, outside of Cameron and Conor Wallace, he’s boxed absolutely nobody.
“For someone who was a top-class amateur, to be a professional as long as he has and to have fought the level of opposition he has, he’s missed years of learning – and that could be a problem at the top level.
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“It’s great getting the highlight-reel knockouts – it’s great for your ego, for the perception of you and from a promotional point of view, to create the star quality and the hype. That’s important when you’re trying to build a star, but you also need to build the fighter.
“You can’t just build a star without building a fighter, because at some point he’s going to be in a battle against another real fighter, who is of a high level, who wants it as much as he does, and can take a shot and give a shot.
“If you’re not getting seasoned, if you’re not putting the stuff that you’re learning in the gym into practice, on the night and when you need it, it won’t be there because you haven’t developed it.
“By the way, I like him a lot and I want him to do well, but he hasn’t been managed well in his career in terms of the opponents he’s fought. He needs some proper fights.”