Light heavyweight prospect Ben Whittaker (9-0-1, 6 KOs) stopped Liam Cameron 23-7-1, 10 KOs) in the second round in their rematch on Sunday night at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, England.
The way the fight ended was just as controversial as their first contest on October 12th. In both cases, the referee blew a call, marring the outcome.
Tonight, referee Howard Foster ruined a perfectly good fight by stopping the fight out of the blue after Whittaker trapped Cameron against the ropes, and unloaded a flurry of shots, with most landing on the gloves. It looked like Howard didn’t know what he was seeing and was fooled by the wild shots that Whittaker was throwing, and thought they were doing damage. They weren’t. The replays showed that only a couple of Ben’s punches connected. The rest of them hit gloves.
Liam, 34, looked in surprise after Foster waved it off because he’d been hit with almost nothing in that sequence. Foster appeared to be unsure of what he was doing and overreacted to Whittaker’s shots.
Whittaker knocked Cameron off balance with a right hand to the back of the head. The shot caused Liam’s legs to wobble, but only because he’s been hit with a punch around the back of his head. Not to miss out on an opportunity for an easy win, Whittaker pounced on Cameron, swinging for the fences with looping punches.
No Clear Winner
Cameron instinctively backed up against the ropes to keep from being overrun by the 2020 Olympic Silver medalist. Once he was against the ropes, he covered up behind a tight guard, letting Whittaker expend energy hitting gloves. At that point, Foster rushed in and stopped the fight.
We’ll never know who would have won the fight now, because the referee ruined the fight with his weird call. What likely would have happened is that Whittaker would have gassed out from his onslaught, and Cameron would have then come on and potentially won the fight.
