Ben Whittaker on ‘tough’ Cameron test, winning an Olympic medal and ‘I’m A Celebrity’ wish

Speaking to InstantCasino.com, British boxing’s rising star Ben Whittaker opened up on his upcoming fight against Liam Cameron in Saudi Arabia and his experience of winning a silver medal at the Olympic Games…

Whittaker speaks about preparing to face the toughest test of his career to date in the Middle East next month, returning to the spot where he fought as a professional for the second time.

‘The Surgeon’ also discussed the possibility of venturing stateside for a bout in 2025 and offered his take on Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol’s undisputed title fight in October.

See the full interview below:

Question: It’s three weeks until you fly out to Saudi for your ninth pro fight, how’s the body feeling and how’s the camp been so far?

Ben Whittaker: “Yeah it’s been great. I’ve been training here in my new place, my new gym kitted out by RPM and Everlast. So for me this is my new hub, my new home and this is where the work goes in. Hopefully I’ll be the gym’s first world champion.”

Question: Has your career gone exactly how you have planned it so far since turning pro in 2022?

Ben Whittaker: “It’s early doors of course. For me there’s a lot more to achieve but as for now, the way things are going and progressing and the way people are talking about me, I can’t really complain.”

Question: “You don’t win silver, you lose gold. I’m very disappointed – I feel like a failure.” A quote which received a lot of positive attention. How much did that defeat motivate you?

Ben Whittaker: “Yeah, that defeat changed me in as much as I don’t want to ever feel that feeling again. I think if you look through history some of the people who didn’t win gold went on to become some of the greatest professionals in boxing. A perfect example for me is Floyd Mayweather. He won bronze and is one of the best professional boxers ever in my opinion.

“Losing the final in Tokyo made me think, ‘ok there’s more to come, there’s more drive in me.’ But looking back it was a great achievement and not many can say they’ve gone to the Olympics, let alone medalled. So for me it’s a nice box to tick but I’m on to the next stage of my career now.”

Question: The 2nd fight of your pro career was in Saudi and soon you’ll return there to face Liam Cameron. Will he be the toughest test of your career to date?

Ben Whittaker: “As a professional, yes, but not out of my whole career. I think if you look at my amateur career I fought some real killers to be honest. At the top, top level of amateurs there’s some real killers from the likes of Cuba, Kazakhstan, Russia. A lot of people think, ‘oh it’s just amateurs’ but it’s 10-9 scoring, no headguards and it’s very tough, so while this fight is tough on paper, I believe that if I go in there with the right gameplan and the right me on the right night, I’ll make it look easy.”

Question: Your last two wins have been by unanimous decision, so will you be gunning harder for a stoppage on October 12th?

Ben Whittaker: “Of course! Everybody wants a knockout. If I was sitting here saying I didn’t want a KO, I’d be lying. But for me, I could be sitting here saying I lost those last two fights. So as long as I’m winning, I’m winning and when you keep winning your name keeps growing. So for me a win is all I want and a win is all I need.”

Question: Does it concern you that Cameron has previously failed a drugs test in his career?

Ben Whittaker: “No, it doesn’t really bother me. We‘ve been getting random drug tests recently. They knocked off my door at about five in the morning and I thought I was getting burgled! I was like what’s going on here?! But it shows that they’re doing things right and for me all I can do is focus on myself. I don’t really focus on my opponent too much.”

Question: I recently spoke to your promoter Ben Shalom and he said there is big interest from America to bring you stateside. Can you tell us more about this?

Ben Whittaker: “Yeah, we just released a documentary on YouTube called 48 Hours with Ben Whittaker in NYC. We sat down with NBC which is like America’s Sky TV. They’re so big they’ve got the WWE, NFL you name it. They’re really excited for the future but if you don’t get the next fight right, the future gets cancelled for me. So the plan is to focus on the next fight and then there should be something exciting in the pipeline for everybody.”

Question: You have a huge social media following in Brazil. Have you ever been there and would you consider fighting over there?

Ben Whittaker: “Yeah I’m pretty much like an adopted Brazilian now. I need to go out there and feel the love in real life! So if I can get a tour guide and get that documentary. I knew this would happen, it was more when not if. And if you look through all my fights I’ve been doing the same things but for some reason that fight just clicked and resonated with people.

“It just got clicks, clicks, clicks, follows, follows. And out of nowhere I’ve got 2.9 million followers. It’s great but for me, followers don’t win you fights. I know I’ve got to get the work done in the ring. Because at the end of the day, if there’s more eyes on you want to see you win or lose. That’s how I see it.

“The amount of followers I got so quickly, it’s ridiculous. Just before that happened, I had 200k followers and I was like that’s decent. Then I woke up one day and SportsCenter had posted me, it went to 800k and carried on blowing up! I don’t even use TikTok but that’s on 1.1 million as well. It was ridiculous, but it just shows whatever I’m doing is right. It must be the hair. It must be the looks. It must be the physique. Whatever’s happening is happening. But at the end of the day, you’ve just got to keep that ball rolling now in people’s eyes, in people’s minds, and it’s got to keep performing to keep the followers going.”

Question: Beterbiev vs Bivol, who wins that fight and how would you fare against the both of them?

Ben Whittaker: “I just look around the room because I keep changing my answer. I was Bivol, Bivol, Bivol. Then I was Beterviev. I was thinking his power will be too much. And a lot of people think all he has is power but he’s very clever. He cuts off the ring well. He’s more of a ‘come forward’ kind of counter-puncher. He makes you throw and he hits you hard. Then last week I went back to Bivol and today I woke up feeling like Beterviev again. So it is a flick of the hat.

“If you look back through history, light heavyweight was one of those weight classes where you had a great champion and the rest of them weren’t the best. Whereas now you’ve got two of the best pound for pound fighters fighting each other. They’re both heavy hitters. They’re both very skilful. And then even the guys under them are also very good. So for me, it’s an exciting division.”

Question: You don’t ever appear nervous. Is that an illusion or if not where does your supreme confidence come from?

Ben Whittaker: “If people say they’re not nervous then I think they’re lying. I think everybody has nerves but it’s about how you channel them and how you overcome them. You look at the interviews with Mike Tyson, he was like near enough crying on his way towards the ring. But when he got in there, he was this superhuman. And I think that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to embody this alter ego. And that’s what I do. My confidence comes from my training. I come to the gym two, three times a day and I leave no stone unturned. I leave through that door thinking I’ve given everything I can, so I’m confident. Whatever happens in that ring happens. That’s where your confidence comes from. And then not only that, I’ve got my alter ego. My alter ego is ‘The Surgeon.’ That’s when I’m flashy, that’s when I’m arrogant, that’s when I’m cocky. There’s two sides of me. I’m the normal family man at home, but when I’m in that ring it’s showtime that’s when I turn into an entertainer.”

Question: Do you get a similar buzz from making your opponents miss that you do from catching them with big shots?

Ben Whittaker: “Yeah, when I first started as a pro I got more of a thrill making them miss and making them look silly, more than knocking them out. But now that I’ve started hitting people and hurting them a little bit, I kind of like knocking them out as well. So I’m trying to find a balance. The best of both worlds. But that is my guilty pleasure. Making someone miss. You’re standing right in front of someone and they’re missing and you can see the frustration on their face. It’s kind of like when you’re at school and you’re winding somebody up. And for me, it’s great. And I love it. That’s why I got kicked out of school, for being a wind up merchant so I took it into the ring.”

Question: Your showboating style has proved divisive but got people talking about you. Do you feel you need to shut the haters up in every fight?

Ben Whittaker: “Not really. I’d say at the end of the day everyone’s got their own opinion. For me, it’s just another style. You see people come forward, you see people go back. People have showboated back in the day, but for me it’s an art, it’s a skill. If everybody could do it, they would do it, but they can’t. And I believe I’ve been given and gifted these skills to do it. And not a lot of people know standing in front of your opponent, making a miss that close with your hands down. That’s a very hard skill and I make it look easy. So for me, I’m just going to keep doing it. It requires a lot of things but it’s just my style. It’s not like I stood in the mirror with my hands down perfecting this style when I was a kid. I just got in there, started doing it worked, and obviously through experience, through going through the amateur ranks and now as a pro, you get better at things and I get better at it.”

Question: Light heavy is one of the most exciting weight divisions in boxing. Do you feel like it’s your destiny to unify the division?

Ben Whittaker: “The way I keep putting these curry goats and mac and cheeses away, I might be going up in weight! This whole camp I’ve been sparring nothing but cruiserweights, which is good. And I think that’s what you need, you need to spar these heavy guys. But for me, of course, the division you’re in, you want to be the kingpin. You want to do everything you can at that and if you move up, you move up. So for me, do everything I can at light heavy and then see what happens.”

Question: There are some huge domestic clashes available to you; Anthony Yarde and Lyndon Arthur for example. I assume you want those fights but when would you want them?

Ben Whittaker: “I think if you’re at the weight you need to fight those people. There’s a lot of politics to it. There’s timing. They might have different fights, they might have different schedules, they might have different lineups. So for me, all I can do is stay on my path really, keep fighting who’s in front of me, keep beating who’s in front of me and the more my popularity grows, the more people will want to fight me. And I think that’s what’s happening now. A lot of people want to fight me because one, they’re getting paid decently or two I’ve got the following. And if they’re fighting Ben Whittaker they get the reflective glow, don’t they? That’s how I see it now. So for me, I’m becoming the man who’s not even got anything that people want to fight. So, it’s not too bad. It’s all coming together.”

Question: You mentioned Mike Tyson earlier, was he someone that you idolised growing up? 

Ben Whittaker: “Truthfully no. A lot of people keep saying [I remind them of] Prince Naseem and the drunken master and all that but I don’t actually like watching that style. I like watching pure boxers, so for me my favourite boxer is actually Mario Kindelán. He beat Amir Khan in the Olympic final. He was a beautiful boxer. So he’s my favourite. Then you go through the boxing of Pernell Whitaker, Tommy Hearns and Salvador Sanchez, people like that for me. They’re real boxers and that’s what I love. All that funny stuff I do is great. It’s an art, but I love boxing. When I really need to show my boxing, I can box.”

Question: Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson has been slated from pillar to post since its announcement. Does it disappoint you that a boxing legend like Mike has been dragged into this?

Ben Whittaker: “It’s one of those things, it’s sad but he’s not getting forced. That’s how I see it. If he was getting forced to put him in handcuffs and threw him in the ring, and Jake was just teeing off on him, I’d go, what’s going on here? But at the end of the day, he signed up himself, he must be getting paid well enough to get in there and he knows what he’s signing up for. But looking at it from an outside eye, Mike Tyson’s a legend.  You don’t really want to see him get beat up by a YouTuber, you’ll never hear the end of it. But at the end of the day, like I said, he’s put himself in that position and hopefully he can come out with the win.”

Question: Chris Eubank Jr, I think he said your name maybe a couple of times, but do you think he’d really want that smoke with you? 

Ben Whittaker: “I think it was a joke really. You know what the media is like these days. They start running with stuff. Because even when they said it, I saw the Chris Eubank stuff online and I said, what’s going on here? So I opened it. And like he was kind of just like trying to beat around the question and he kept trying to press the question. You know what it’s like. But at the end of the day, if it was there, of course I wouldn’t say no. Because if you look at it, I’m the bigger guy. I think they make weight classes for a reason.  I’m the bigger guy, the younger guy, the faster guy. And in my opinion, the more skilful guy, but I’ve got nothing against him. He’s had a great career, still doing a great career. And if it did happen, it happens, but I just don’t really see it happening.” If it did happen, where would you want that to happen? Would we see that out in Saudi?  

“Pay me, we can do it here. Pay me right. We can do it here, man. We can sit some chairs up and they can watch us.”

Question: Who do you think was the better fighter in their prime, Eubank Senior or Eubank Junior?  

Ben Whittaker: “I’ve got to go with Senior. I think just who he fought, the way he fought. I think there’s no comparison really, but great fighters in their own respect.”

Question: What other sports are you into apart from outside of boxing and football? Is there much you’re into? 

Ben Whittaker: “I’ve been getting into MMA. My coach actually trains down at Renegade. So he sees people like Leon Edwards, one in the UFC called Jai Herbert. So I’m around them to be fair. I do the odd session of wrestling with them, which is good for boxing grappling. I do like but not a sport, but I want to get into WWE. If I can get the right contact. Get me in there! That’d be sick.. I like all sports really, and I love watching the Olympics. Of course, I’m a part of it. And you see sports that you’re not used to. So for me, I’ve been watching loads of gymnasts and when you actually look into it, it’s really cool. The strength and dedication they have to do. They make it look so easy. So my brother bought some Olympic rings the other day and was messing around with them.I was like jeez!. So you have to respect it. I say all top level sports are hard in their own way.”

Question: In terms of your planning now for the fight, what’s the plan when you’re out in Saudi? 

Ben Whittaker: “The work is done then, if I’m honest. So the work’s done. Just go out there. Smile and laugh at the cameras, have a little touch on the pads, keep yourself sharp and just enjoy the moment because these moments come and go. Like you said, I was in Saudi for my second fight. I forgot what it’s like. So for me, I’m going to try and enjoy this moment. Saudi’s getting bigger and bigger. So for me, just enjoy it. Take as many photos as possible. Get the win and come home. 

“My team is coming with me. My Mum doesn’t really like the boxing. She watches at home, bless her. As mothers do. But my dad comes out with me. Mrs comes out with me. Brother comes out with me. Camera man, friends, big crew. And I think it’s good. I’m a person who likes his family around. Even my friends are classed as family. Just a big family occasion.”

Question: Another person that’s a big fan of you, Tony Bellew, The Bomber. He actually called up TalkSPORT to defend you when people were ringing in to criticise you, which is nice.

Ben Whittaker: “I respect Tony. I like him a lot. And coming from a person like him, he’s a boxing World Champion. Someone like me wants to get the achievements he’s done. So every time I see him rooting for me it means a lot man.

“Like he’s a nice guy. He’s just come from like where I’ve come from. I see it as he’s come from the bottom. Worked his way up and changed his family’s life.” Then went in the Jungle in the end!

“You know what, I want to go into the Jungle. I do want to go in there, but my number one fear is spiders. My second fear is insects. My third fear is height. So I don’t know if I’d do well.  I’d go into such a frenzy and a panic. They might have to get an air ambulance dragging me out.”