Liam Cameron called out Ben Whittaker over the decision for their light-heavyweight rematch to be contested over 10 rounds as the pair went head-to-head at their public workout.
As the pair faced off in Birmingham on Thursday, ahead of their bout on Sunday, Cameron told Sky Sports: “If he [Whittaker] was that confident, he’d have called my bluff and said ‘I’m going to fight you 12 rounds’. But he didn’t, did he?”
The rival camps had been deadlocked in a row over the duration of the fight, with Cameron revealing he had initially signed for a 12-round fight, even though their first contest was a 10-rounder.
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Ben Whittaker says he will pass the microphone to Liam Cameron once he wins their fight. The Gloves Are Off is available to watch now in full
Whittaker and Cameron’s first contest back in October ended early and controversially when they tumbled clear out of the ring in the fifth round.
Whittaker, an Olympic silver medallist in Tokyo, was injured and unable to continue. The result therefore went to the scorecards and was ruled a technical draw.
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Ben Whittaker says he has enjoyed life out of the limelight and has perfected better ways to fall out of the ring for his rematch with Liam Cameron
With their rematch finally confirmed on Thursday as a 10-round contest, Sky Sports’ Matt Macklin believes Cameron may have struck an early psychological blow.
“Cameron wanted 12 because he’s been 12 rounds,” Macklin said. “He’s generally a slower starter and his tactics will be to try and wear Ben Whittaker down, make him work harder than he wants to early doors – and have that catch up with him in the second half.
“It’s basically how the first fight was playing out, and that’s what he’s got to try to do again.
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Speaking on Toe2Toe, Matthew Macklin, Barry Jones and Wayne Elcock discuss how Ben Whittaker might approach his rematch with Liam Cameron
“The longer the fight goes on, the better for him. He’ll have wanted those extra rounds because in a fight where it’s getting tough – let’s say its the eighth round – you can already see the light at the end of the tunnel with only two rounds left to go, and you can sort of hang in there a little bit longer. But if you’re struggling in the seventh or eighth and you’ve got another four or five rounds to go, it’s harder to do that.
“Psychologically, if I was Cameron, the fact that they don’t want to do 12 rounds, that would feel like 1-0 to me.”
Watch Ben Whittaker vs Liam Cameron 2 on Sunday live on Sky Sports.
