WBC silver light heavyweight champ Ben Whittaker had everything going his way for nine rounds- jabbing, moving, mugging to the crowd and winning quite easily. Then things changed…
Wallace had his best round in the 10th as he was able to land a series of jolting southpaw lefts which seemed to have Whittaker bothered and the crowd awakened.
Wallace couldn’t capitalize in the 11th, and the 12th was a case of “almost.” Wallace manhandled Whittaker all over the ring in the 12th, where Whittaker found himself on the canvas three times, twice dragging Wallace down with him. None were called knockdowns, but Whittaker was spent and barely survived the round.
The final scores were: 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 all for the still undefeated Whittaker. The Surgeon wins the final IBF eliminator to possibly face unified champ Dmitrii Bivol. Whittaker admitted he took his eye off the ball because “It was too easy.” For his part, Wallace admitted to starting a bit too late. With Bivol committed to a defense against Callum Smith on December 12th, promoter Eddie Hearn felt Whittaker’s shot against the winner might not come until next summer. He didn’t rule out a rematch with Wallace, which both parties welcomed. Whittaker improves to 13-0-1, 9 KOs while Wallace falls to 17-2, 12 KOs.
