Whittaker withstands Wallace rally to win IBF final eliminator

Ben Whittaker secured a unanimous points victory over Conor Wallace at Birmingham's Utilita Arena on Saturday, surviving sustained late pressure to win their IBF light-heavyweight final eliminator. BBC Sport reported scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113. The result kept the Olympic silver medallist unbeaten as a professional, with 13 wins and one draw.

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Whittaker built his advantage during the opening nine rounds before the contest changed sharply in the tenth. Boxing News, whose unofficial card awarded him each of those first nine rounds, reported that Wallace then began finding the target more regularly. Its account described Whittaker needing the closing bell after the challenger had reversed the flow of the fight.

World Boxing News also reported that Wallace's strongest spell began in round ten. The final round brought three occasions on which Whittaker went towards the canvas, but the referee did not award a knockdown on any of them. Whittaker reached the finish, leaving the earlier rounds and the judges' overall assessment decisive despite Wallace's pressure at the end.

Speaking afterwards, Whittaker acknowledged that he had lost concentration and spent too much time showboating when he felt comfortable, according to the BBC. Wallace called for a rematch. Whittaker did not rule out another meeting, but neither that response nor the post-fight discussion amounted to confirmation that a second contest had been agreed.

The BBC reported that Whittaker is now mandatory challenger to IBF champion Dmitry Bivol, who is expected to face Callum Smith in December. Promoter Eddie Hearn said Whittaker's opportunity against the winner would probably not come until next summer and that he needed another fight in the meantime. That left the timing of a title challenge provisional rather than fixed.

Elsewhere on the Birmingham card, World Boxing News reported that Bilal Fawaz retained his British and Commonwealth super-welterweight titles with an eighth-round stoppage of Eithan James. Odel Kamara also won his professional debut, stopping Thodoris Ritzakis in the third round. Those results preceded a main event in which Whittaker obtained the decision but had to survive a markedly different closing stretch.