Commentator Spencer Oliver says lightweight contender Ben Whittaker must show X-rays to prove he was injured during his fall outside the ring in the fifth round of his fight against Liam Cameron on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Oliver feels Whittaker has been exposed, and many fans believe he quit to avoid being defeated by 33-year-old Cameron.
Whittaker (8-0-1, 5 KOs) could not continue the fight, which went badly for him when he fell outside the ring. He had to be wheeled out of the arena in a wheelchair. He reportedly suffered a sprained socket in the fall.
The fight had gone badly for 2020 Olympic silver medalist Whittaker since the third when he started getting hit hard by the heavyweight Cameron (23-6-1, 10 KO), who was not expected to be competitive. .
In the fifth round, Whittaker seemed to hold Cameron and lean on him when the two were against the ropes, which sent both fighters tumbling out of the ring. Whitaker stopped and could not continue the fight. The match went to the scorecards with the judges scoring:
– 58-57 – Cameron
– 58-57 – Whittaker
– 58-58
“I said, ‘We need to see the X-rays,'” Spencer Oliver said talkSport Boxing about wanting to see X-rays of Ben Whittaker’s injured ankle. “On the surface of it, he could have swallowed it. He was exposed in a lot of ways that night. It started to go horribly wrong for him, and you thought, ‘Where’s that technical ability to come back?’
“Ben Whittaker needs to show the evidence, the X-rays, to show that he really has (an injury). If he doesn’t, there will be a grand jury out there. We talked about him being a superstar. He had everything outside the ring, inside the ring.
Whittaker should have already shown an x-ray or produced a doctor’s note to confirm his ankle injury so that fans would have no doubts.
“Cameron was winning the fight. I think Ben got away with the score really lightly. Was he exposed, and did he gobble him up? He revealed himself very quickly. He was dragged into a dogfight. In the fifth round , when they were against the ropes, it was like a WWE. He pulled him out of the ring,” Oliver said.
Obviously, there’s going to be a rematch because Whittaker can’t walk away from this fight without showing that he can beat this guy.
