Former Champion Blames Ben Whittaker's 'Character' for Recent Shortcomings

Despite remaining undefeated and collecting the biggest win of his career, Ben Whittaker raised even more red flags about his championship potential by scraping past Conor Wallace.

Although Whittaker swept the scorecards against a top-five-ranked contender, he ended the fight on a whimper, drawing immense criticism of his performance from several pundits, including his own promoter. 'The Surgeon' received one of his harshest reviews from former world champion Chris Algieri, who called out his "character."

"He lacks character, that's what shows up in 12-round fights," Algieri said on the 'Inside Boxing' podcast. "How do you deal with resistance? It seems whenever he has resistance, he stumbles. That has to do with your character. When you're lacking that, especially at 29 years of age, you've been tested and failed before. You see he gets panicked when he gets pushed. That's not the way you need to react in a championship fight."

Algieri on Ben Whittaker:

“He lacks character. And when you’re lacking that especially at 29 years of age, you’ve been tested and failed before. He gets panicked when he’s pushed” pic.twitter.com/dWvx0FVi6z
— Dan Canobbio (@DanCanobbio) October 5, 2026

Whittaker comfortably out-landed Wallace 115-85 while connecting on a superb 32.1 percent of his punches, according to Compubox. However, he was thoroughly dominated in the 12th round, landing just two punches to Wallace's 18 while appearing to struggle to remain on his feet.

Eddie Hearn rejects Ben Whittaker title shot idea

With the win, Whittaker will assume Wallace's place as No. 2 in the IBF light heavyweight rankings. The organization currently does not have a No. 1 contender in the division, putting the 29-year-old up as the potential next challenger for titleholder Dmitry Bivol.

Yet, Whittaker's own promoter, Eddie Hearn, rejected the idea of a title fight immediately after the fight. Hearn said the Brit's performance proved he still needs one more before facing a divisional champion and eyed the winner of November's top-10 matchup between Joshua Buatsi and Willy Hutchinson.

"For me, no, he needs another fight," Hearn said in the post-fight press conference, via Ring Magazine. "Now, when I look at it, I think that's the Buatsi-Hutchinson winner, that's [Anthony] Yarde, or it's Conor Wallace. I'm happy to make that fight [again]. Because if we're gonna be serious, to beat the likes of Bivol and Callum Smith -- with all due respect to Conor -- Ben needs to be beating Conor Wallace impressively."

🗣️ “No, he needs another fight.”

Eddie Hearn speaks on Ben Whittaker potentially facing Dmitry Bivol 👀

Whittaker defeated Conor Wallace in an IBF eliminator for Bivol’s title on Saturday 🏆 pic.twitter.com/W1LUqj3OtY
— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) October 4, 2026

Wallace is the first-ranked fighter Whittaker has beaten in his 14-fight professional career. He previously struggled with then-ranked contender Liam Cameron in 2024, whom he eventually ran through in their rematch.

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