LIVERPOOL, England – Ben Whittaker impressively finished Braian Suarez inside a round at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena. It was confirmed afterwards that Whittaker will next fight in New York, on June 27, when he will star on the Jaron Ennis-Xander Zayas undercard at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
Whittaker, a 2020 Olympic silver medalist, had been eager to fight, having not been in action since November when he ironed out Germany’s Benjamin Gavazi in the opener. Since then Whittaker, 28, had been waiting around on the sidelines for a US debut that never came. The period of inactivity might have made Whittaker keen to get the rounds in and, although the contest finished at 2:24 of Round 1, the WBC No. 3-ranked light heavyweight contender never rushed his work.
The now 11-0-1 (8 KOs) light heavyweight from West Bromwich, England, was calm throughout, even sitting on the bottom rope as he awaited the opening bell.
Whittaker cooly flicked his jab into Suarez’s face, almost teasing his opponent in the early exchanges. Suarez, 34 and from Argentina, chugged forwards behind his high guard, but offered little in terms of punches thrown. When Suarez did launch anything meaningful, Whittaker would just skip away, waving to the crowd as he did so.
Whittaker had said in the build up that he was battling to strike a balance between showman and finisher, and late into the opener the finish was clinical. Whittaker planted a left hand downstairs that brought Suarez’s hands down, and as the Argentinian stepped forwards Whittaker fired a right hand over the top. Suarez crumbled to the floor and did not seem to know where he was as he squirmed on his back.
Suarez attempted to get up, but his body was not working in synchrony with his mind, and the referee Steve Grey’s count reached 10 with him still lying on the canvas. There were complaints from the loser afterwards that the finishing blow was an illegal one, that it had connected to the back of the head. Replays proved that not to be the case.
“It feels good, baby,” said “The Surgeon”. “To take someone out in the first round like that, it shows where I’m at. They can all call me out but the more comfortable I get, the more dangerous I get… I want to go down, when all is said and done, as one of Britain’s greatest ever fighters.”
Suarez fell to 21-5 (20 KOs) with the loss, and Whittaker will move on to tougher opposition.
Also on the card, former UFC fighter Molly McCann picked up the fourth win of her professional boxing career, outpointing Ashleigh Johnson over eight rounds. McCann, now 4-0 (1 KOs), was disciplined throughout the contest, picking her shots against the game Johnson, now 3-4. The referee Mark Lyson scored the contest 78-74 in favour of McCann.