Ben Whittaker remains in the headlines following his latest fight and has now been accused of avoiding a big name UK rival.
Whittaker is one of British boxing’s rising stars. The former Olympic silver medallist is a big talker with plenty of skills and a flashy personality.
He likes to showboat in the ring even against men he is expected to beat, and that has often got people talking, particularly when his performances are not the best, as was the case with Liam Cameron.
Cameron knocked Whittaker out of the ring and Whittaker was left unable to continue with a back injury, though many claimed he was looking for a way out.
He won the immediate rematch with a second-round KO, and last time out he was cruising to victory against Conor Wallace before being caught late on and surviving a torrid few final rounds.
Speaking to talkSPORT Boxing, Anthony Yarde was asked about always being mentioned as an opponent for Whittaker and said he’d be open to fighting but that Whittaker’s team have claimed that are not yet ready.
“You get two people in the same weight class, they’ve both got a bit of a name. The name’s always going to get thrown at each other.
“Personally, we tried to get that fight then his team came back and said he needs another year, he’s still in that stage where he’s leaning and he’s growing and these kind of things. If that fight was put to me tomorrow, I’d take it, for obvious reasons.”
Yarde has much more experience than Whittaker, having challenged for the world light-heavyweight championship three times in his career so far. Most recently, he lost to David Benavidez for the WBC and WBA belts in November last year.
