Ben Whittaker vs Joshua Buatsi won’t come next as Eddie Hearn reveals alternative plan

Eddie Hearn has told talkSPORT that Ben Whittaker will not be fighting Joshua Buatsi next.

On Wednesday, the WBC ordered Whittaker and Buatsi to square off in a final eliminator bout to determine the mandatory challenger for WBC light heavyweight champion, David Benavidez.

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Whittaker (10-0-1) flattened the lowly-regarded Benjamin Gavazi inside the opening stanza over the weekend at Birmingham’s NEC Arena.

The Olympic silver medalist was awarded a shiny new No.3 ranking with the WBC for his efforts.

And while a fight with No.2-ranked Buatsi (20-1) makes sense when it comes to the order of the organisation’s ratings, Hearn insists the opportunity is coming a touch too soon.

“I was pretty honest with our assessment of Ben going into his fight last week, that we have to go through these levels,” Hearn told talkSPORT Breakfast on Thursday morning.

“And there are kind of three in the division. We have got Bivol, Benavidez and Beterbiev.

“Then you have got Callum Smith, Yarde and Buatsi.

“Then you have got Craig Richards, Dan Azeez, Willy Hutchinson, Zach Parker.

“So it came a little bit earlier than we anticipated. We are fighting in America in March, which is part of this global plan we have for Ben.

“The Buatsi fight is an amazing fight, and I think he is going to go through all these domestic guys, so we have to consider that for the summer.

“If he’s ready, why not? But we have a plan with Ben.”

Mark Robinson/Matchroom

Ben Whittaker’s next fight

Judging from Hearn’s comments, Whittaker is likely to fight a domestic-level boxer when he returns to the ring in March across the pond.

Craig Richards, Dan Azeez, Willy Hutchinson, and Zach Parker were all mentioned and serve as decent steps up in competition.

Of the four, the most marketable matchup would be one with Hutchinson, who has been embroiled in a bitter feud with Whittaker this year.

Richards is also an easy fight to make as he is signed by Matchroom, but the legitimacy of the contest will depend on ‘Spider’ beating Azeez in Accra, Ghana, on December 20.

Parker, meanwhile, was unlucky not to get his hand raised against Buatsi in November.

Most felt he had done enough to win the all-British showdown, but the judges gave the fight to Buatsi via majority decision.