Ben Whittaker

[Master]

Went to commonwealth games morning session boxing finals on Sunday. The atmosphere was brilliants and Galal Yafia was in the crowd.

Met Ben Whitaker and he took photos with us. I was lecturing him that he should have stayed amateur and could have won gold in these games on his own doorstep instead of turning professional with 1 fight. He jokingly said he wanted to “give other people a chance” but still acknowledge what I said was true.

I told him he reminded me of a young Ali and he started saying because of the jab and fast foot walk? I said no because of your confidence and positive way you speak about yourself. He said he had to talk and publicise himself as much as possible to raise awareness of his fights and keep up the public interest.

I also met Wayne Elcock, who was a VIP guest and had Kronk yellow T shirt for his own gym. He was a humble and amenable man. We talked about his fight with Arthur Abrahams and Howard Eastman. I asked if he thought he was robbed in Germany, but he said no and that he did make enough money to retire comfortably from that win.

Brilliant day in Birmingham.

[Master]

Some of the judging at the commonwealth games were shocking. They have 5 judges who score each round and go with majority but even then they still made the wrong decisions. The referees were of a poor standard some of them looked too old and did not want to be there seperating the boxers which led to a lot of illegal roughhouse tactics.

[TIC]

nice quick turn around for ben on the oleksandr v aj undercard

[Beanz]

Went to commonwealth games morning session boxing finals on Sunday. The atmosphere was brilliants and Galal Yafia was in the crowd.

Met Ben Whitaker and he took photos with us. I was lecturing him that he should have stayed amateur and could have won gold in these games on his own doorstep instead of turning professional with 1 fight. He jokingly said he wanted to “give other people a chance” but still acknowledge what I said was true.

I told him he reminded me of a young Ali and he started saying because of the jab and fast foot walk? I said no because of your confidence and positive way you speak about yourself. He said he had to talk and publicise himself as much as possible to raise awareness of his fights and keep up the public interest.

I also met Wayne Elcock, who was a VIP guest and had Kronk yellow T shirt for his own gym. He was a humble and amenable man. We talked about his fight with Arthur Abrahams and Howard Eastman. I asked if he thought he was robbed in Germany, but he said no and that he did make enough money to retire comfortably from that win.

Brilliant day in Birmingham.

That is brilliant mate, great for you and the lads. I took my grandson to work with me at the gym last week with a local promoters new batch of fighters and he was more interested in his bloody tablet.

[Master]

Children can be a pain when they do not appreciate what you do. My son is now a Whittaker fan but he still supports Canelo and likes MMA.

[Master]

[Master]

[Master]

BOSNIAN boxer Petar Nosic used to answer calls for an energy company - now he is fighting on Anthony Joshua's undercard.

The super-middleweight faces rising British star Ben Whittaker, who last year won Olympic silver.

Nosic's office for the night will be in the ring against Whittaker, before AJ headlines in a rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.

So it marks quite the journey from working in Ireland answering the phone at energy provider Green Star.

Nosic, 23, began boxing only in 2015 and after six months he was already representing Bosnia.

And it was in one European Championship bout that he actually boxed Whittaker, losing in the second round.

Nosic told The42: "I had only been boxing for seven or eight months.

"I wasn’t really ready for that level; not ready physically and even less ready mentally.

“His team definitely know about that fight — but that was seven years ago, you know?

"I was a beginner, then. Now, I’m obviously more prepared. I know what I’ve come here to do.

“But Ben has also improved. He took silver at the Olympics and is obviously a very, very good boxer.

"So, we’ve both improved in our own ways… and we’ll see what happens Saturday.

“It’s actually a good thing but I think they’re definitely underestimating me.

"See, I see this as an opportunity to show myself to the world, you know?”

Nosic moved to Cork in 2018 and before looking for an amateur boxing club to train at, he needed to first find a job.

He worked as a kitchen porter before switching to customer services for Green Star.

Nosic boxed in Ireland for three years but moved back home during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

He has remained there ever since, turning professional in 2021 and since going 6-0.

Whittaker, 25, plans to use Saturday night's Sky Sports Box Office event to further announce his name to the boxing world.

His promoters have high hopes and believe they have got the nation's next star on their hands.

But for Nosic, he plans to rip up the script and derail 1-0 Whittaker's hype train before it has even left the station.

He said: “I could never go in with the mentality just to stick around until you hear the last bell.

“That’s not the way I think. That’s not the way I process things.

"Every time I have ever been in the ring, I have gone in there to win. I go in there to try to finish the guy.

Whatever happens happens — but I’m always confident in my preparations, I know what I have to do.

"I’ve sacrificed the last, I don’t know, seven or eight years of my life training constantly to get an opportunity like this.

"I’ve never had a training camp in my life: my whole career is training camp. Even when I’m on holiday, I train.

“So, that’s where the confidence comes from and I need to have that mentality.

"I can’t go into a fight just to put up a good fight, you know? I fight to win.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/19560...d-joshua-usyk/

[TIC]

lets see if we get any consistency from those who rag on other fighters who get a media push

[Master]

As Mirror Sport's Black History Month mini-series continues, this piece focuses on boxing star Ben Whittaker, who claimed the silver medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Born and raised in Wolverhampton, the 25-year-old was a hyperactive child and his father suggested turning to boxing as a way to channel his constant bundle of energy.

The boxer revealed he signed up for his very first fight without consulting his parents, but it paid off as he emerged victorious, before deciding to pursue the sport for a living. During the exclusive chat, Whittaker, who has an English and Austrian mother and a Jamaican father, shared what comes to mind when he thinks of Black History Month.

“It’s a time to celebrate what we’ve gone through and where we are now,” he said. “Being a black athlete and being able to perform at the highest level and put my country on my back, it’s the best feeling ever and it means a lot to me.” However, he did stress the need for black history to be taught and promoted more consistently throughout the year, especially throughout the education system and called on those with the influence to try and make a difference.

“We only get one month and it gets brushed under the rug," he added. "It should just become a norm now, we’re in 2022, everything should just be accepted. This month, it should be pushed as much as possible, but sadly it doesn’t get the push it should do. If people with the blue ticks and a bit of say don't start pushing this then it’s going to go quiet and get forgotten about.

“Especially in primary schools, drill black history into them from then, so when they get older it’s the norm. I think that's what the higher-ups have got to do.” On his boxing journey, in addition to life in general, Whittaker shared his experiences in the sport and challenges he has had to overcome, one of which is racial profiling.

“It is a struggle now and again,” he continued. “I do think boxing is a sport where most of the champions are African-American or African descent. In all walks of life there have been times where I’ve been profiled. It’s not nice because some people don't know who I am, but I'll wear a tracksuit and I’ll put my hat on and it’s ‘oh, I don't know about this guy’. It’s not the best feeling and it’s still around today sadly.

“Even as a kid when I went into the gyms there were not a lot of kids boxing. I’d walk in and it was like a pin dropped. I was thinking ‘what’s going on here’? My dad said ‘just keep walking, just do your thing, when you spar you show them who you are’. That’s the way it was sadly, it shouldn’t be that way, but it was."

In England and Wales, there were 7.5 stop and searches for every 1,000 white people, compared with 52.6 for every 1,000 black people. Furthermore, those from mixed ethnic backgrounds were about two-and-a-half times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people.

Whittaker is disheartened by some of the things he has experienced due to his race, but he remains encouraged by his platform and uses his achievements to inspire the next generation. “Being be a black athlete representing my country, I like that I’ve done what I’ve done because it shows other kids who might feel that type of way or get that type of profiling that someone can do it who looks like them,” he added. “I wear the Great Britain vest and that type of vest underneath.”

Representation is so vital to the black community, as seeing people flourishing in an industry one is keen to enter further fills them with motivation and the drive to try and succeed. For Whittaker, it was Birmingham-born footballer Joleon Lescott playing for his boyhood team Wolverhampton Wanderers, and former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua later in life that inspired him to go after his dreams.

“Joleon Lescott, he was the local hero for me and I remember I shook his hand and I didn’t wash my hand for a week,” the Olympian chuckled. "Being a little kid, seeing someone who looks like me and acts like me, I said ‘I want to be like him’. Then I started growing up and I saw Anthony Joshua and once again he looks like me and I thought ‘I want to be like him’. If you see someone that looks like you and represents the same things as you, it inspires you to want to be like them.”

Whittaker touched on some of the adverse reactions people can have to being racially profiled, and sadly saw some of his friends go down the wrong path as a result. But he praised his upbringing for keeping him on the straight and narrow and explained how he has helped the younger generation.

“What I’ve done before is go into the schools," he explained. "I went back into my local school and it was good to see the kids’ eyes light up. I’m a local kid, I’ve been through the same things as them and I live around the same area as them. No-one’s ever come into my school and no-one ever gave me that reason to look up to them so that’s what I try and do it now and I think that’s what more people should do.”

After capturing a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Whittaker turned pro earlier this year and last fought on the undercard of Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk’s second fight in August and emerged victorious.

After winning his first two professional fights, the boxer outlined his goals for next year and beyond in a very simple and confident manner. "Next year, it's just the same old me,” Whittaker said. “Just keep beating them up, keep winning and just keep it moving from there.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/boxi...42c62512b660ab