7/26/2023 0 Comments 1 hitter quitter![]() The debut was well received, but Whittaker promises there is a lot more to come. "So whoever's in the opposite corner, I'll just make them box to my strengths." Luckily enough I've got Joby, I've got Sugar, they don't only do one game plan, they do A, B and C, so I can mix it all up. "But with whoever's next, you never know so. So the perfect game plan was to annoy him even more and then make him walk onto a shot," Whittaker said. That opponent, like you said, he came for it in the first round and I could see he was frustrated from the weigh-in. ![]() "You have to approach every fight with an open mindset. Whittaker say he enjoyed himself in the ring against O'Neill His style is developing and the next fight could well be different again. I'm fit, no injuries so I'm just ready to go again," Whittaker said. "As soon as my management team and promoter and whoever put their heads together and get me a date, that's when I'm ready. If the opportunity comes up to box on the undercard of the August 20 Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua rematch, he is ready for it. The more time I spend under those lights, in front of those fans, learning to adapt to my new style, I'm going to get better." "The first thing I want in the first and second year is activity. By the end of the year, hopefully four, pushing five, that would be great," he said. Whittaker wants to be boxing regularly, ideally once a month from now on. I can still have fun, make them miss and then at the start of the second I showed now I've had my shoulder surgery I've got two hands and I can hurt people." The first round I'd grade myself probably a 'C' and then I brought it back with the second round so all in all I was happy. "I was enjoying it a bit too much but, like I said, it was my first fight since the Olympics so the timing and things like that was just a little bit off. "Where as a professional you kind of get praised if you do it now. There's been no one there other than my corner team and those judges didn't like it and those referees used to tell me not to do it," Whittaker said. Going to these amateur tournaments, I've been doing that for years now. "A lot of people really bought into the entertainment part of it and that's what I love. ![]() His early showboating certainly had the crowd in Bournemouth engaged. When someone comes to fight, they can walk onto shots and that's why I liked it." So he was there to try and cause an upset. "He tried to hit me on the break and stuff like that. Image: Whittaker celebrates his debut victory (Photo: Lawrence Lustig/BOXXER) ![]() It's not like he just wanted to tuck up and just get through it. "Of course he was a journeyman but he had a 50-50 record and he actually came to win. O'Neill had tried to rattle Whittaker, stepping into him in their face-off after weighing in the day before and looking to roughhouse the Olympic silver medallist in the fight. So after 12 months, 18 months, it'll be good to see where we actually are at." We've only had six, seven weeks together and I'm doing that already. "The shot that we worked on in the changing room was the actual shot that knocked him out so was buzzing," Whittaker said. The punch itself was exactly what he and Steward had practised in the warm-up for the fight. I thought it was the perfect way to start and hopefully I can carry that on through my career." ![]() "With people watching and all the hype and stuff, 'Can he punch, can he this and that?'. ![]()
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