British light-heavyweight Ben Whittaker has garnered a big following throughout his professional career and now the West Bromwich contender looks poised to soon challenge for world honours.
Whittaker has fought on 13 occasions since his 2022 debut and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist has captured global attention through his personality, his showboating, but more importantly, his talent.
Now, despite picking up the WBC Silver light-heavyweight title when ticking off the milestone of a US debut with an early stoppage of Richard Rivera last month, Whittaker appears to have selected the IBF as his preferred route towards the 175lb crown.
According to talkSPORT, Whittaker is currently ‘in advanced negotiations’ for an event which would see him headline the Utilita Arena in Birmingham for a third occasion, this time taking on Conor Wallace on Saturday, October 3.
“While Wallace’s manager, Mick Francis, pushed for the fight to take place in Australia, it appears that the contest is heading to Whittaker’s hometown of Birmingham.
“Sources close to the deal indicate that the Utilita Arena will host the light heavyweight showdown on October 3.”
Wallace was born in Northern Ireland but now lives in Australia and has competed there throughout his career. He is ranked as the IBF’s #2 contender and his meeting with Whittaker (IBF #3) would determine the IBF’s new #1 and subsequent mandatory challenger.
Therefore, the victor would be in line for a shot at Dmitry Bivol’s unified light-heavyweight world titles, or involved in a vacant title bout if the Russian was stripped of, or decided to vacate, his IBF marble.
That being said, Bivol recently fulfilled his IBF mandatory by outpointing Michael Eifert and is instead expected to face WBO mandatory challenger Callum Smith upon his next outing.
