The scariest thing about Ben Whittaker has never been his hands. It is the sense that everything is a performance until somebody makes him actually fight. On Saturday in Birmingham, Conor Wallace finally made him fight — and for three rounds, Whittaker looked like a man clinging to a life raft.
He got the decision anyway. That is boxing. But the way he got it left more questions than answers about the man who is now first in line for a light heavyweight world title.
Whittaker Survives a Wild Final Round in Birmingham
The scores were 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113, all for Whittaker, who retained his WBC Silver belt and locked in the IBF mandatory position with his win in an IBF title eliminator. For nine rounds it was a showcase. Whittaker’s speed advantage was almost unfair. Wallace could not buy a clean entry, and every time the Australian planted his feet, Whittaker was already somewhere else, flicking hooks off the back foot.
Then Round 10 happened. Wallace landed a big left hand, Whittaker’s legs went, and suddenly the slickest showman in Britain was grabbing, tackling and surviving. He went to the canvas multiple times in the twelfth. The referee ruled each one a slip. Wallace needed a knockout and never got it.
I have gone back and forth on Whittaker for two years now. The talent is real. The temperament is the question. Against a limited opponent he was brilliant for the first twenty-seven minutes and then a passenger for the last nine. That is not a knock on Wallace, who deserves enormous credit for never folding — it is a warning. Dmitry Bivol will not let him off the hook in Round 12.
Whittaker’s mandatory shot now waits on Bivol versus Callum Smith, targeted for December 12. On the undercard, Hamza Uddin stopped Sean Bruce in eight rounds to claim the British and Commonwealth flyweight titles, Bilal Fawaz retained his British super welterweight belt with an eighth-round stoppage of Eithan James, and Ibraheem Sulaimaan stayed unbeaten with a unanimous decision over Sonny Hardy.
Omari Jones Makes It Look Easy in Orlando
Two nights earlier in Orlando, Omari Jones reminded everyone why Matchroom is so high on him. The 23-year-old Paris Olympic bronze medalist stopped Alan Sanchez 49 seconds into the second round at Caribe Royale, headlining Matchroom’s Project Series 2.
Jones is now 8-0 with 5 knockouts. He had gone the distance in three straight fights before Friday. The power is finally catching up to the pedigree, and that is a scary thought for the rest of the division.
The Filipino Corner: Paalam’s Silver and a Long Wait
If you are Filipino like me, the weekend’s hardest moment was not in Birmingham. It was in Nagoya.
Carlo Paalam lost a split decision to Japan’s Rui Yamaguchi in the men’s 55kg final at the Asian Games, settling for silver. Three judges scored it 29-28 for the hometown fighter. Two gave it to Paalam, one of them by a 30-27 margin. ABAP president Marcus Manalo did not hide his feelings afterward. “I thought we won the bout,” he said.
Paalam had done the hard part. He edged China’s Zhang Jiamao in the quarterfinals, then knocked off reigning world champion Makhmud Sabyrkhan of Kazakhstan in the semifinals. That is a brutal path to a gold-medal bout, and he walked it without complaint. The loss means the Philippines still has not won Asian Games boxing gold since Rey Saludar in 2010 — a sixteen-year drought that keeps getting heavier with every cycle.
Paalam was the lone Filipino boxing medalist of these Games, and his silver matched the country’s haul from Hangzhou in 2023. That is the part that stings. One medal is a result. One medal from a full delegation is a pattern, and it is the same pattern Mark Vicelles’ loss in Japan underlined only a week ago.
Midweek Moves: Zepeda-Herrera Ordered, Boots-Kelly Planned
The sanctioning bodies had a busy week.
The WBC ordered a lightweight title consolidation between William Zepeda and interim champion Jadier Herrera, with a deadline of October 20 for the two sides to come to terms. Zepeda (34-1, 27 KO) has been on a tear since punching his way past Lamont Roach for the WBC belt in August, and he is a tall order for a 24-year-old whose best win came against an aging Ricardo Nunez. Herrera (18-0, 16 KO) wants the fight anyway. Good for him.
Over at 154 pounds, Eddie Hearn confirmed plans for a three-belt super welterweight unification between Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Josh Kelly in “either December or very early January.” Ennis (36-0, 32 KO) will be a heavy favorite. Kelly (19-1-1, 9 KO) deserves credit for taking a fight almost nobody expects him to win, especially after the David Avanesyan drubbing in 2021 that had most people writing him off entirely.
Bentley Picks the Payday Over the Mandatory
Then there is Denzel Bentley, doing the thing boxing keeps rewarding and fans keep hating.
Ordered to defend his WBO middleweight title against unbeaten mandatory challenger Yoenli Hernandez, Bentley instead filed an appeal with the sanctioning body and signed to face Shane Mosley Jr on Zuffa Boxing 12 on November 7 in London. As the promotional B-side against Hernandez (11-0, 9 KO), he would have made under $200,000.
The timing is what grates. You do not wait until after the purse bid, run the numbers, and then ask for a softer touch. That is the same game the IBF mandatory mess in the heavyweight division showed us in September, and it is a big reason so many divisions stay logjammed while the best fights never get made.
What’s Coming: Iglesias, Schofield-Bahdi, and a Loaded October
October is stacked. Osleys Iglesias defends his IBF super middleweight title against Oliver Zaren in Quebec City this week, and if you have never watched Iglesias, fix that immediately — he has as strong an eye-test claim to the best in that division as anyone alive. Saturday brings Floyd Schofield against Lucas Bahdi for the vacant WBA lightweight title in Chicago, with Ricardo Sandoval defending his WBA and WBC flyweight belts against late replacement Sergio Mendoza on the undercard.
After that: Dubois versus Wardley II on October 17, Navarrete versus Foster unifying the 130-pound belts on October 24, Dalton Smith against Alberto Puello, and Canelo Alvarez challenging Christian Mbilli in Riyadh on Halloween. Add Fury versus Joshua in Cardiff on December 11 — which I covered when it was announced — and you have a genuinely absurd finish to the year.
Bottom Line
Whittaker got his mandatory and lost some believers. Paalam got a medal and lost the gold he will think about for years. That is the sport in a single weekend: two men who did almost everything right and still walked away with something missing.
Next Monday we will know whether Schofield is the real thing at 135 pounds, and whether Iglesias is as good as the eye test says. I am watching both, and I will be keeping half an eye on the pound-for-pound hierarchy Inoue took over in September to see who gets pulled into it next.