Ben Whittaker was overcome with emotion after his rematch with Liam Cameron on Sunday night.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist stopped Cameron in the second round at the BP Pulse Live Arena in Birmingham in front of a hostile home crowd.
Ring MagazineWhittaker burst into tears at his post-fight press conference[/caption]Whittaker had become public enemy number one in the immediate aftermath of his controversial inaugural encounter with Cameron and was met with a cacophony of boos as he made his way to the ring.
‘The Surgeon’ was branded a ‘quitter’ by several members of the boxing fraternity after he withdrew from his first fight with Cameron following a tumble over the top rope in the fifth round last October.
In the days that followed, Whittaker received a wave of online abuse and even had close friends turn their backs on him when he needed them most.
Opening up on his challenging last six months, Whittaker burst into tears at his post-fight press conference.
“Truthfully, nothing has changed if I’m honest, I knew I should be doing that to people like Liam Cameron, no disrespect, but it was the six months out,” said Whittaker as he choked up and began to cry.
“Stuff like my brother had two daughters, I couldn’t really enjoy it too much because of what I was going through online.
“And it didn’t really bother me, but even close friends, people that I classed as family, left me.
“They had a lot to say about me, but it was a great time to go back to the old Ben Whittaker.”
After his first fight with Cameron, Whittaker realised that change was needed, and so he left his coach and godfather Joby Clayton to work with Andy Lee at the Ballybrack Boxing Club in Dublin.
It proved to be the right decision, as Whittaker proceeded to put on a punch perfect display en route to stopping Cameron against the ropes with a vicious flurry.
Whittaker linked up with Lee before the fight in an inspired decisionGetty“Before the Olympics, I locked in, I trained hard and I dedicated the sport,” Whittaker continued.
“My life was moving at 100 miles per hour. Like I say, I come from a humble household where not a lot of stuff was given to us, so to be in the position where everything is coming at me at free will, it was amazing.
“But that six months out really humbled me, got me closer to God, and the small people around me are just what I needed.
“I went to the gym daily, took away the cameras, took away the social media and just got back to the old Ben.
“I want to thank my church as well, Living Hope, because I went through that door very quietly and kept myself to myself, and they brought the old Ben out of me.
“I got a text from Andy Lee. A lot of people were laughing behind my back, but he came to me and said, ‘Come to Ireland, and I truly believe we can get the old Ben Whittaker back’.
GettyWhittaker stopped Cameron in the second round of their rematch[/caption]“We trained hard, and after a couple of days he said ‘You’re going to knock him out’.
“And I just believed in him, he believed in me, and I went out there and did what I was supposed to do in Saudi.”
While Whittaker’s performance will have silenced some reservations about his promise in the sport, his post-fight outburst won’t have won him back too many fans.
After referee Howard Foster stepped in and waved off the fight, Whittaker made his way over to Cameron’s corner, poked his head through the ropes and celebrated in their faces.
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