Tony Bellew reckons Ben Whittaker dodged a serious bullet against Conor Wallace. Wallace turned what should have been a cruise into pure survival mode down the stretch. If Whittaker wants a shot at a world title, those final minutes gave future rivals plenty of tape to pick apart.
Whittaker dominated almost the entire bout until Wallace caught him flush in the tenth round. He made it to the final bell to secure the decision, but Bellew couldn’t understand letting a massive lead slip into such danger.
Once Wallace rattled him in the tenth, Whittaker completely abandoned any pretense of boxing. He initiated immediate, desperate tie-ups, wrapping both arms around Wallace and dragging him into repeated clinches simply to burn seconds and clear his head. Under the unified rules, excessive holding is an explicit foul.
Referees are supposed to issue a stern warning before deducting points, especially when one fighter is initiating the clinch solely to neutralize the other man’s offense while hurt.
Instead, the referee acted like an unpaid spectator. He repeatedly broke them without issuing a single stern caution for initiating the holds. That gave Whittaker free license to keep grabbing every time Wallace closed the distance. If you put an elite veteran referee in that ring, Whittaker gets warned immediately after the second prolonged clinch. If he keeps doing it, a point comes off.
Taking a point would have drastically altered the final moments. It forces a hurt fighter to actually defend himself or risk losing on the cards, rather than turning the ring into a wrestling mat until the final bell rings. Whittaker got away with murder down the stretch, and he cannot count on getting that kind of lenient officiating as the competition ramps up.
“Ben Whittaker could have possibly had the most important lesson of his career tonight,” Bellew said on DAZN’s Beyond the Bell. “A lesson of don’t switch off. Even when it’s easy, there’s still dangerous people about. And he’s got away with one tonight.”
Bellew gave Whittaker credit for sheer grit, though elite punchers will make him pay far worse for switching off. He pointed to knockout artists like Artur Beterbiev as threats who leave zero margin for error.
Getting clipped happens in boxing, but Whittaker couldn’t recover once he got buzzed. Wallace kept pouring on the heat instead. Hanging on proved Whittaker has heart, but controlling distance with his jab would have shown true championship poise. Bellew also wondered what Wallace was doing waiting until round ten to turn up the aggression. That leaves a massive question hanging over Whittaker. What happens when an opponent unleashes that tempo from the opening bell?
Writing this off as a brief mental lapse misses the point. Someone pushing the pace early will test Whittaker under genuine duress. Bellew clearly rates Whittaker’s talent, but he flatly dismissed talk that a final eliminator win makes him ready for Dmitry Bivol. Running it back with Wallace gives Whittaker the ideal spot to prove he learned the lesson. Before jumping in with a master like Bivol, he must prove he can handle someone refusing to play by his script.
