Ben Whittaker withstands Conor Wallace rally to earn Bivol mandatory shot

Ben Whittaker survived a punishing final-round assault from Conor Wallace to win their IBF light-heavyweight final eliminator by unanimous decision at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena.

The judges scored the fight 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 for Whittaker, who became the mandatory challenger to unified champion Dmitry Bivol after going 12 rounds for the first time as a professional.

Whittaker controlled much of the opening nine rounds with his speed, jab and movement, drawing Wallace forward and answering with the quicker combinations. A left hook briefly staggered Wallace in the third, while Whittaker’s command of the distance allowed him to mix composed boxing with spells of showboating.

Wallace, a Northern Irishman based in Australia, struggled to land his southpaw left hand consistently but showed its threat when he connected cleanly in the sixth. Whittaker’s trainer, Andy Lee, warned him between rounds: “Stay focused. Just because you’re comfortable, don’t get lazy.”

The fight changed in the 10th when Wallace landed a heavy left and caught Whittaker again as the home fighter attempted to hold. Whittaker’s legs appeared unsteady as Wallace’s pressure turned a controlled performance into the first prolonged crisis of the Olympic silver medallist’s professional career.

Whittaker steadied himself in the 11th but was badly shaken again early in the final round. Wallace repeatedly found the target with his left hand as Whittaker reeled, lunged into clinches and went to the canvas three times, although referee Kieran McCann ruled that none of the incidents was a knockdown.

The final bell ended Wallace’s attempt to overturn Whittaker’s early lead. Whittaker improved to 13-0-1 with nine stoppages, while Wallace fell to 17-2 with 12 inside the distance.

“It was too easy and I took my eye off the ball a little bit. He caught me with a good shot but that’s boxing,” Whittaker said. “When it got a bit too easy I was playing too much and doing silly antics.”

The difficult finish revived questions about Whittaker’s stamina that followed his technical draw with Liam Cameron in October 2024. After moving to Dublin to work with Lee, Whittaker recorded four consecutive quick victories, each ending inside two rounds, before Wallace forced him through a demanding championship stretch.

Lee revealed after the fight that Whittaker had been ill with Covid during the final week of his preparation. “This man had Covid last week. He was in bed,” Lee said, while also backing an immediate rematch with Wallace.

Wallace calls for a rematch

Wallace accepted responsibility for allowing Whittaker to establish such a wide lead and called for an immediate second fight.

“I only have myself to blame,” Wallace said. “I feel like I’ve got the best support in the world. This felt like my home show tonight even though it’s in Birmingham.”

Whittaker was also open to facing Wallace again. “I want to thank Wallace; great fight. I think we should do it again, and I’ll beat him down even better,” he said.

Asked about Wallace’s success in the closing rounds, Whittaker added: “Not really, to be fair, he was just making it really messy. A lot of elbows, a lot of the back of the head but it’s a 12-round fight at top level and I loved it.”

Promoter Eddie Hearn has time to arrange another bout because Whittaker’s mandatory opportunity is not expected to be called immediately. Bivol, who also holds the WBA and WBO titles, is expected to face Callum Smith in December, which would leave Whittaker needing an interim contest before challenging the winner.

“We know Ben is in the position to fight the winner of Bivol-Smith but it’s likely that won’t be until next summer, so he needs to fight in the interim,” Hearn said.

Fawaz and Uddin claim titles

On the undercard, Bilal Fawaz retained his British and Commonwealth super-welterweight titles by stopping Eithan James in the eighth round.

Fawaz gradually broke James down to the body before a right hand forced him to take a knee. Another right sent James down again and ended the contest at 1:14 of the round.

Fawaz, now 13-1-1 with five stoppages, collected a £5,000 knockout bonus offered by Hearn and called for fights with IBF champion Josh Kelly and Conor Benn.

“It doesn’t matter who is in front of me, with the capacity of what we are trying to achieve, no one can stop us except if they are at world level,” Fawaz said.

Hamza Uddin won the British and vacant Commonwealth flyweight titles by stopping Sean Bruce at 2:49 of the eighth round. The unbeaten 23-year-old dropped Bruce twice in the fifth, first with a body shot and then with hooks to the head, before a right to the body followed by another right upstairs produced the decisive third knockdown.

Odel Kamara also made a successful professional debut, stopping Thodoris Ritzakis in the third round. The 22-year-old Liverpudlian dropped Ritzakis with a right hand in the opening session before referee Ryan Churchill halted the contest at 2:53 of the third after another clean right.