Benjamin G. Whittaker (born 6 June 1997) is an English

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

. As an amateur he won a silver medal at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

Amateur career

In 2018, he was picked to represent England in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, which took place in Australia's

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

. In 2019, he was selected to compete at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...

, Russia, where he won the bronze medal after losing by

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighte ...

Dilshodbek Ruzmetov Dilshodbek Ruzmetov (born 12 March 1999) is an Uzbek professional boxer. As an amateur, Ruzmetov won a gold medal at the 2021 Asian Championships and a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships. Ruzmetov also competed at the 2020 Summer Oly ...

in the semi-finals. In 2021, at the men's light-heavyweight category at the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...

, Whittaker won the silver medal against Arlen Lopez, who won gold. Whittaker tweeted, "You don't win silver, you lose gold. I'm very disappointed - I feel like a failure." Distraught from falling short of gold, he refused to wear the medal at the ceremony; however, he vowed he would return to win gold, saying: "I'll come back, trust me." Whittaker's passionate reaction drew mixed reactions, but most people were empathetic of Whittaker's reaction. English media personality

Piers Morgan Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (; né O'Meara; born 30 March 1965) is a British broadcaster, journalist, writer, and television personality. He began his Fleet Street career in 1988 at ''The Sun (United Kingdom), The Sun''. In 1994, aged 29, he was ...

tweeted: "Love this - finally, an athlete at these Olympics prepared to tell the truth about competing in elite sport. Good for you @BenGWhittaker".

Professional career

In 2022 he signed a professional deal with

Boxxer Boxxer, stylised as BOXXER, is a British professional boxing promotional company. Founded by Ben Shalom, Boxxer began as Ultimate Boxxer, organising eight-man professional boxing elimination tournaments starting in April 2018 and preceding to ...

, training with SugarHill Steward.

Professional boxing record

Notes

References

1997 births Living people English male boxers Sportspeople from West Bromwich Boxers at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for England Boxers at the 2019 European Games European Games medalists in boxing European Games silver medalists for Great Britain AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists Light-heavyweight boxers Boxers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic boxers of Great Britain Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in boxing {{UK-boxing-bio-stub