Matt Maher: Easter Sunday showdown represents moment of truth for Ben Whittaker
It’s time to discover who Ben Whittaker really is.
Sunday’s showdown with Liam Cameron in Birmingham is where he must reveal it, or risk the most promising of professional boxing careers being extinguished before it has barely begun.
It would not be game over, should Whittaker not get the win. His promoter, Boxxer, has invested far too much money in the Darlaston man to afford that. But it would be an awfully long road back, for a fighter who will enter the BP Pulse Arena knowing he has a reputation to repair.
There has been an awful lot of nonsense spouted since Whittaker and Cameron both fell over the top rope and onto the apron of the ring, bringing a sudden and bizarre conclusion to their first meeting in Saudi Arabia six months ago.
One of the strangest sights ever seen in the sport, it led some to make the fanciful suggestion Whittaker had instigated the entire episode, by somehow pulling his opponent out of the ring.
More serious is the accusation the 27-year-old exaggerated the extent of his subsequent ankle injury in order to secure a halt to proceedings, which resulted in a technical draw awarded when the light-heavyweight contest went to the judges’ scorecards.
Only Whittaker, of course, will ever know the truth. Yet the charge of “quitting” is as serious as you can make against a fighter. Whittaker, let’s not forget, won Olympic silver while boxing with a badly-injured shoulder. He has never been the type to give up easily.
