The first day of Easter, Sunday April 20th, saw a much-anticipated rivalry between Ben Whittaker (9-0-1, 6 KO’s) and Liam Cameron (23-7-1, 10 KO’s) finally ensue after weeks of drama. With tensions high, it would be Whittaker who overcame the immense pressure on him to stop Cameron early in their 10-round bout. The two headlined at the bp Pulse LIVE Arena in Birmingham in an event promoted by Boxxer.

Ben Whittaker vs. Liam Cameron

The battle between the two Brits, one a Olympic silver medalist the other an experienced British-level fighter, took up this weekend’s spotlight following their first bout last year which ended in a draw. Just like their previous match, Whittaker’s IBF International light-heavyweight (175 lbs) title was on the line for this fight.

The glaring difference in the 1st round between the two was Cameron’s attempt to pressure Whittaker and drag him out of his comfort zone with a high guard while looking for the right punch. Whittaker, forced on the backfoot as he faced a bigger man in Cameron, reacted well to this strategy, managing to stave off damage by remaining active with his jab and moving around the ring.

The 1st round was fairly uneventful as a result, with Cameron’s approach not culminating in a significant amount of punches while Whittaker’s own were tailored to push Cameron back rather than actively hurt him. The underlying strategy of Cameron, however, seemed to be to tire Whittaker down over the rounds.

The 2nd round saw Whittaker find the same sort of success with his jab despite Cameron employing a high guard. Cameron became more active but was inaccurate, with Whittaker’s agile defense culminating in more missed punches than necessary. Despite this, there were occasions where Cameron looked to be a threat in the moments where his punches did land, though Cameron was clearly holding back in lieu of his strategy to wear Whittaker down and fully unload on him later in the fight.

The continuous jabs that Whittaker had landed on Cameron caused minor nose bleeding though this proved to be a fairly inconsequential occurrence for Cameron whose work rate improved following the half portion of the 2nd round. However, this also resulted in Cameron opening himself up and amidst an attempt to hit Whittaker with his left hand, he was beaten to the punch by Whittaker who landed his own right hand quicker.

Whittaker’s shot stunned Cameron, who had arguably been on the course of winning the round, and Cameron was soon forced into a corner where he had to withstand multiple shots by Whittaker. Despite clearly having his gloves up in defense, Cameron failed to answer to any of Whittaker’s flurry of punches and the referee interceded not long after to stop the fight.

Ben Whittaker would be announced the winner by technical knockout (TKO) in the 2nd round but a bitter aftertaste hangs over his victory, not merely due to the questionable stoppage by the referee but further due to Whittaker’s in-ring antics following his win where he allegedly spat on Cameron’s corner due to comments made against him ― though this would later be debunked by Cameron’s trainer Grant Smith.

While Whittaker retained his IBF title and seems to have overcome the pressure and expectations on him, not helped by the controversy of the first match where he was alleged to have quit, but there seems to be a glaring issue with British referees and early stoppages as was reflected in the April 5th bout between David Adeleye and Jeamie TKV.

In both instances, the fighters that won were a part of the promotion that was organizing the event, in this case Ben Whittaker with Boxxer. With these questionable early stoppages having occurred in the span of two weeks, it now falls on the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) to step in and ensure referees and their controversial actions are appropriately handled according to the rules ― though in boxing referees typically do not suffer any form of repercussions for showcases of possible corruption or bias.

Undercard fights:

• The undercard featured British heavyweight (200+ lbs) and former prominent amateur fighter Frazer Clarke (9-1-1, 7 KO’s) following his brutal stoppage loss to Fabio Wardley last year. Returning against Ghanaian fighter Ebenezer Tetteh (23-3, 20 KO’s) who was coming off a December loss to Dillian Whyte (31-3, 21 KO’s), the expectations were for Clarke to win soundly and he delivered, stopping Tetteh in the 1st round of their 10-round bout.

• Another fighter that recently lost, British middleweight (160 lbs) Tyler Denny (20-3-3, 1 KO’s), returned to action against another Ghanaian fighter in Elvis Ahorgah (13-4-1, 12 KO’s) who like Tetteh was a hard-hitter in his own division and was coincidentally also coming off a stoppage loss.
  
  Already boasting an extremely low KO-ratio having netted only one knockout during his entire career, Denny defeated Ahorgah over 10 rounds to win by unanimous decision (UD) but questions remains on Denny’s validity to compete in the upper echelon of his division given his lack of power ― which does not appear to be well-compensated by an abundance of defensive ability.