Ben Whittaker takes aim at Joshua Buatsi vs Dan Azeez winner as he looks forward to the year ahead

Ben Whittaker closed out 2023 in style, recording one of the knockouts of the year when he blasted out Stiven Leonetti Dredhaj in four rounds in December.

Olympic silver medallist Whittaker is just five bouts into his professional career. But he is ambitious.

Over the course of the year ahead he wants to pick up his first pro titles and is targeting the winner of the February 3 Joshua Buatsi vs Dan Azeez fight.

“That’s who we’re heading for. You can never know what’s going on in this sport but domestically, it’s really good,” Whittaker told Sky Sports.

“You’ve got so many names. So for me of course you’re going to head for the winner, the winner of that, not the loser. But either or, the winner or the loser is still a great name for the fans as well. So it’ll be good hopefully.”

Of the belts he’s gunning for, he said: “The British, it would be good to tick that one off, British, maybe European.

“Hopefully after we tick a couple of those off, world titles. We’ll get there slow and steady.

“Keep winning, keep performing and then when it’s all said and done hopefully I’ll achieve what I want to achieve.”

He added: “I’ve got the speed, the style, the skills, and I’ve still got the age on my side as well. So it’s looking quite good.”

From Wolverhampton, Whittaker, alongside new European champion Tyler Denny, looks to be part of a revival of boxing in the Midlands.

He would relish taking on Ricky Summers for the English light-heavyweight title.

“He’s a local guy, so a local derby there,” Whittaker said of Summers. “He’s gone a bit missing but he might have just wanted a bit of time out.”

Summers lost to now British champion Dan Azeez and was defeated in a 2017 British title challenge by Frank Buglioni.

“If people can sort that out, that would be a great fight,” said Whittaker, who hopes to box next in February. “It would be great on my resume, someone like that.”

Southampton’s Lewis Edmondson called out Whittaker directly ahead of his last fight. “I didn’t even know who he was [before]. It’s the first time I’ve ever been called a golden goose so I like it. It’s a compliment,” the Wolverhampton man said. “But get in line like everybody else.

“If I got drawn into all that silly nonsense, I wouldn’t have performed the way I performed. That just shows tunnel vision – I’ve got to go fight by fight, day by day and if I keep performing like that, the sky’s the limit.

“It’s only natural that people want that spot [which he’s in], they want the limelight. They want people talking about them. So fighting me, it won’t happen but beating me – it puts them in that position.

“So I can’t really knock anyone or fault anyone for doing that. I would do it myself.”

But he added: “I’m looking up not down really. Anyone who can get me a ranking, who is a good name, a belt of some sort, that for me would be great.”

Knockout of the year?

In his last fight, Whittaker did perform, finishing Leonetti Dredhaj with a tremendous combination for one of the best knockouts of 2023.

“The highlight reel knockout,” Whittaker said. “That’s what we want to do, get those eye-catching moments.

“Taking a couple of rounds to break him down, get him out of there, showed the development, it showed what I’m working on and hopefully more of that for 2024.”

It was a reminder that Whittaker can strike with devastating force.

“The set up was really good. I did a throwaway jab, just to get his reaction,” he explained.

“What I did well during the rest of the rounds – I kept stepping back, kept stepping back, a little push away and that little push away allowed him to fall in a little bit, fall in a little bit and then the throwaway jab made him think I was going to push away, he ran in and I just stayed there, lay back, right hand-left hook.

“I learned from my last fight because the last guy I wobbled him with a straight right but I didn’t put the left hook on, so it shows I’m evolving little by little and the left hook’s what really ended the show.”

Showboating is a weapon

It’s not just the knockouts that have garnered attention. Whittaker has generated headlines, and attracted criticism, for his in-ring showboating.

But there is a method to it. He uses it to draw in his opponents.

“I know I can put a disciplined boxing performance on. When I’m sparring I’m obviously not always showboating, looking away, I know for certain people it works right now. It worked perfect for that guy [Dredhaj]. It annoyed him a little bit, frustrated him and that’s how I got the knockout,” Whittaker noted.

“He was trying, even when I was hurting him, he was trying to fight back. My previous fight, as soon as he felt a punch, he just tucked up, he didn’t want to know. Those are the hardest ones sometimes because they’re already braced for the shots so it’s ready hard to hurt them.

“A guy like this where he’s opening up, you can pick them apart and, like I said, that’s all she wrote.”

When it comes to playing up to the crowd, he continued: “We don’t do it just to show off, even though it might look like it.

“It’s actually a gameplan and for certain people it’ll work. Some people will just look right through it and that’s when you have to go back to your boxing.”

Doubt about his true mettle is something Whittaker is happy to shrug off.

“You always get critics, you always get comments. I think if you haven’t got critics, you’re not doing something right. Some of them talk as if they know everything but it’s just their opinion and I can’t wish no bad on them really,” he said.

“I might come across a bit flashy and blah, blah, blah and all the rest but I’m making sure I’m working hard and staying level-headed. If you get lost into all that then you get found out.

“I just need to stay switched on and the boxing speaks for itself.

“It will all pan out when I win a world title and I beat the people I’m supposed to beat and I sail off into the sunset, they’ll say; ‘Oh that Ben Whittaker was good.'”