Shocking news has reverberated throughout the boxing world as British light-heavyweight (175 lbs) prospect Ben Whittaker (8-0-1, 5 KO’s) has put his upcoming April 20th fight against Liam Cameron (23-6-1, 10 KO’s) in doubt by seeking to change the number of rounds he was set to fight from 12 to 10.
The upcoming Boxxer show is set to feature the Whittaker-Cameron fight, a rematch of their last bout in October of last year, as the headlining act. A slew of controversy surrounded their previous fight, with Whittaker being accused of quitting which led to the tumble out of the ring as ensued during the match.
Liam Cameron himself revealed these facts in an interview with British media outlet talkSPORT where he brought Team Whittaker’s ghastly attempts to alter their bout contract which has been set for 12 rounds. Cameron would also mention Sky Sports’ efforts to stifle him exposing Whittaker’s actions ― likely to protect Boxxer who is promoting the upcoming event and with whom they have an exclusive broadcasting deal.
“We’ve signed for a 12 round fight and they’re trying to push it for a 10-rounder, trying to do everything they can and I’m not budging,” Cameron told the hosts of talkSPORT.
“I’m having a 12-round fight, and this is what I tried to do on the Gloves Are Off, [but] they won’t let me speak about it, and on Sky Sports they didn’t air my interview. This is the problem I’m [facing].“
Though the April event, which will be headlined by Liam Cameron and Ben Whittaker, is still scheduled, there appears to be movement from Team Whittaker’s side to change the current 12-round bout contract to a lower 10-rounder.
The situation speaks to not only the flagrant underachieving mentality of Whittaker and his team, but also again highlights Boxxer in a controversy outside of their prevalent last-minute withdrawals of their fighters from purse bids. Notably, this follows shortly after the promotion’s recent debacle in how they handled their best female prospect and best female fighter.
Boxxer has not been mentioned to be the cause for the contract’s 12-round stipulation, but given Ben Whittaker is their fighter, the sabotage that Liam Cameron allegedly suffered in not being able to speak about the situation can firmly be attributed to the promotion.
Ironically, the particulars of the Whittaker-Cameron bout being a 12-rounder was the responsibility of the former’s team who, according to Cameron, had thought they sent him a contract for a 10-round fight:
“There’s been a mistake there where now they’ve thought they sent me a 10-round contract,” Cameron told talkSPORT.
“When I was signing it I thought, ’12 rounds, that suits us, they must be mad’. So we signed it, sent it back and they’re like, ‘oh, uhm, can we do a 10-rounder now?’.“
Further marking Team Whittaker’s incompetence is the fact that the team signed their own part of the deal signifying the fight would be for 12 rounds.
According to Cameron, his promoter, Queensberry Promotions, will not be caving on the current contract that sets the Whittaker-Cameron bout for 12 rounds.
Potentially, this can lead to another infamous withdrawal from a Boxxer fighter as Whittaker may yet pull out of his upcoming bout to avoid the 12-round fight; which will prominently hurt his stock in the boxing world, his reputation as well his ability to negotiate in other bouts.
No actual withdrawal has yet been reported for the upcoming April 20th event, though can occur given bout contracts are rarely changed weeks before a fight unless certain stipulations were set in place e.g. in the case of fighters coming in overweight.
