The upcoming April 20th match between Ben Whittaker (8-0-1, 5 KO’s) and Liam Cameron (23-6-1, 10 KO’s) can finally move on after it was established that the contract situation had been resolved.
For roughly two weeks, the fight was hinging on cancellation after Cameron revealed Whittaker’s team was attempting to change the contractual agreement of their light-heavyweight (175 lbs) bout from a 12-round fight to a 10-round fight.
Adding to the controversy was the British Boxing Board of Control’s (BBBofC) own head, Robert Smith, having admitted to not having seen the bout contract yet issuing a 10-round fight, an act that confusedly painted the entire situation as an open ground for anarchy and corruption, it now appears the two fighters’ teams have come to an agreement.
“We signed a 12-round contract so as far as we were concerned, we were fighting 12 rounds,” Cameron’s manager, Lee Easton, explained to iFL TV.
“We have come to an agreement that Liam [Cameron] is very happy with, I’m very happy with, [and] Queensberry [Cameron’s promoter] very happy with. So it’s done and dusted. It is what it is. It’s a 10-round fight now.“
According to Cameron himself, the agreement will result in him being compensated for agreeing to change the number of rounds from 12 to 10 as the Ben Shalom-headed Boxxer, Whittaker’s promoter and the organizer of the upcoming event, have had to fork out a substantial amount to facilitate the change:
“They’ve [Boxxer] had to pay me a fortune to get it down,” Cameron told Ring Magazine.
While it is still unknown how much Boxxer was involved in the contractual agreement that ended in a 12-round fight, as promotions can not function in a managerial capacity and can thus have no influence over contracts, their inability to create a timely resolution only adds up to a streak of questionable decisions the promotion has made ― with their most recent fiasco resulting in both their best female prospect and best female fighter being spurned from fighting on one of the promotion’s cards.
For Whittaker, the situation has further caused unnecessary distress as a result of his management team’s incompetence while already facing months-long allegations of quitting during his first fight with Cameron ― further driving home Boxxer’s continuing incompetence in creating a professional and accommodating environment for their fighters.
The alteration of the number of rounds spells out Whittaker’s own lack of ability to actually compete at the world level and the lack of progress in his own career. A former Olympic silver medalist, Whittaker was touted as a high-potential prospect but his resume has proved contradictory with him having only competed in two 10-round fights thus far and never participated in a 12-round fight since he made his debut in 2022.
Though every prospect develops at their own pace, the inherent chaos of Whittaker’s first bout with Liam Cameron last year emphasizes the downsides of prospects dealing with high expectations ― showing there is often little room for failure in a sport where those that aim to be the best are actually held to those standards.