Newry light-heavyweight Conor Wallace came up short on the scorecards against Ben Whittaker after having the home fighter badly hurt late on in their fight in Birmingham, England, on Saturday night.
Whittaker (now 13-0-1) won both the unanimous decision and the right to challenge unified champion Dmitry Bivol, but after the fight he expressed interest in a rematch with Wallace (17-2), having had to hold on to survive the final minutes of his first 12-round fight.
Whittaker’s boxing pedigree and sharp reflexes saw him coast through the majority of the fight, while Wallace took a cautious approach that left him way behind on the judges’ scorecards. Whittaker displayed his customary Prince Naseem-like showboating throughout the early rounds.
After nine one-sided and subdued rounds, the 10th proved to be the first where Wallace found success, landing with hard left straights, and Whittaker’s coach, Ireland’s Andy Lee, instructed his man to stick to outboxing his opponent after that session.
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However, the Newry man continued his success in the 11th, and the 12th was perhaps the toughest round of Whittaker’s career so far.
Whittaker was caught early with a straight left and tried to hold on, eventually slumping to the canvas, which referee Kieran McCann ruled a slip. Immediately after, Whittaker dodged low to avoid a punch and grabbed on to Wallace’s leg, forcing both men down.
Wallace finally threw caution to the wind, attempting to finish the fight, while Whittaker held on where he could throughout the last round, making one more visit to the canvas; again ruled a slip.
At the final bell, the deficit built in the early rounds proved to be too great for Wallace to overcome and he lost via unanimous decision.
Despite earning a shot at a world title, Whittaker said in his postfight interview: “I want to thank Wallace, great fight. I think we should do it again and I’ll beat him down even better.”
Lee also expressed interest in a rematch, claiming illness leading up to the fight had affected Whittaker’s performance.
