Ben Whittaker's big Matchroom debut silenced critics. Now he must answer real questions

Ben Whittaker has many of the necessary ingredients to become a boxing star.

He has long been considered fun and flashy with a skill set in the sport that could, perhaps, take him to a title shot or two. Maybe he could even win one. And Whittaker's first-round knockout win over Benjamin Gavazi was the perfect start to his Matchroom career, as DAZN now has footage of his speed, unorthodox posture and multi-dimensional jabbing, which paved the way to this past Saturday's finish. After fencing, Whittaker unleashed a seven-shot flurry, with a brutal body-punch for good measure, until that standalone right hand that ruined Gavazi's equilibrium and left him hanging off the bottom ropes.

Gavazi made his way back to his feet and passed the referee's check, but it was really the beginning of the end as Whittaker's one-twos, uppercut to the body, and then a short-range straight right hand left Gavazi on his back in the middle of the ring, with no ropes this time to prop him up.

Blood trickled down the side of his head, and his eyes looked as if he thought he was still in the locker room. The referee had no choice but to wave it all off.

It was over.

There is little question that the highlight will be added to his reel, and Matchroom can market him as a fighter they can position, like Conor Benn, as a candidate who could, one day, inherit the role Anthony Joshua has scant time left to fulfill as a face for the sport in Britain. And the lightning-quick win, in which Whittaker barely even put a foot wrong, was an ideal way to rebound from a two-fight series with Liam Cameron that hardly enhanced the boxer’s reputation after accusations he "quit" in the first bout in 2024.

Beating Gavazi can be a springboard, but only if Whittaker and Matchroom understand what it did — and what it didn’t.

It silenced critics who claimed he was all style and no substance. “I showed something special,” said Whittaker, immediately after the win. “I showed why I’m different.”

The knockout shows Whittaker overwhelms an opponent who allows him the space to perform, and the hesitance that allows him to punch first, but Whittaker is still to answer what happens when a genuine puncher drives a right hand into his teeth. Or who the highest-caliber opponent is that he can beat when a fight gets ugly.

First-round knockout clips like this no doubt feed into boxing’s hype machine, but legitimacy can often be created from the steel needed to grind out a 116-112 win, like when Carl Froch emerged from a battle with Jean Pascal in 2008 to claw his way to the Super Six final, national fandom, and eventually a retirement fight in which he knocked out George Groves in front of 80,000 fans in London.

The matchmaking of Whittaker to date hasn’t allowed him that kind of opponent to win against, and it’s one we will need to see in the next 12 months, particularly if he is to shine in the United States.

“We don’t want to take him to America too much,” said Hearn, “but America is crying out for Ben Whittaker.”

While America could be lured by Whittaker’s style and showmanship, it won’t be left impressed if they come against overmatched opponents.

Whittaker, throughout the new year, needs the type of activity and increased levels of competition that Abdullah Mason benefitted from in 2025 — the 21-year-old Mason competed four times in 2025, finishing with a title shot against Sam Noakes that will only benefit him as a champion in fights to come.

Boxing history is littered with gifted stylists who eventually meet their reckoning, whether that be Prince Naseem Hamed against Marco Antonio Barrera, or Adrien Broner against Marcos Maidana.

Whittaker won’t be suitably tasked with handling that test unless he has opponents in 2026 who give him the kind of resistance that force him to adjust in that kind of fight, and do what Froch did before him, by winning in America and taking momentum back to Britain.

With the right kind of fighter, hype can be easy. But development remains hard. Winning at higher levels is harder still.

Whittaker can go from hyped to developed not by dancing around another overmatched opponent, but by proving something when someone refuses to back up, walks through his performance, and makes him fight.

We already knew Whittaker could hurt fighters ranked below him.

Now the sport waits to see if he can survive the men above.