Eddie Hearn Wants Another Fight Before Whittaker Chases Bivol

Ben Whittaker got the win over Conor Wallace, but he didn't get the stamp of approval. Promoter Eddie Hearn made that plain right after the unbeaten 12-0-1 (9 KO) light heavyweight edged a unanimous decision, telling iFL TV that the man ranked #10 in the division needs an interim fight before he's anywhere near a world title shot.

That shot is real, by the way. Matchroom is mandatory for the winner of Callum Smith vs. Dmitry Bivol, the kind of opportunity most prospects would kill for. Bivol, the IBF and WBO champ at 25-1 (12 KO), and the #2-ranked Smith at 31-2 (22 KO) are exactly the level Hearn thinks Whittaker can eventually reach. He just doesn't think the Wallace performance proved it.

A Win That Raised Questions

Hearn's logic is blunt: if you're going to beat fighters like Smith and Bivol, you have to handle a Conor Wallace convincingly. Whittaker didn't. Hearn said the finish got a little hairy and that he wasn't convinced Whittaker's conditioning was where it needed to be. Had Whittaker iced Wallace in five or six rounds, Hearn admitted, the conversation would be different and a Bivol mandatory could be next.

Trainer Andy Lee had apparently already floated the idea of going straight for Bivol. Hearn wasn't buying it. He said Lee told him the camp had dealt with COVID in the week before the fight, but Hearn waved that off — his view being that once you accept a fight, excuses don't count whether you've got COVID or one leg.

Why the Caution Makes Sense

Look at the gap and you understand the hesitation. Whittaker has nine stoppages in thirteen outings and is coming off a second-round TKO of Richard Rivera, so the finishing power exists. But Bivol has been beaten once in 26 fights, and Smith just outpointed Joshua Buatsi over twelve rounds. That's a different stratosphere from Wallace.

So the plan is one more fight, something to show the form Hearn knows Whittaker has but didn't see on the night. The mandatory status buys Matchroom time. The question now is who Whittaker fights next — and whether he answers the doubts his own promoter just aired in public.