Andy Lee: There’s No Limit To Ben Whittaker’s Potential

Ben Whittaker brought his unlikely rivalry with Liam Cameron to a conclusive end on Sunday night and nobody inside Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena had a better view of the action than Whittaker’s new trainer, Andy Lee.
The former WBO middleweight champion was less than 3 feet feet away as Whittaker, 9-0-1 (6 KOs), hurt Cameron with a right hand midway through the second round. His follow up attack forced referee, Howard Foster, to step in and save the man from Sheffield.
Whittaker was composed and businesslike during the opening moments of the fight but opportunistic when the chance to end matters presented itself.
Although their first official outing together lasted less than five minutes, Lee was delighted with what he saw from the 27 year-old light heavyweight.
“It just reminded me there of one of the first things I said to him when he came to Dublin,” Lee said at the post fight press conference.
“I said, ‘I’m not going to have to do too much with you and I’m going to look like the trainer of the year.’”
Much has been made of Lee’s ability to teach the leverages and pivots that would add weight to Whittaker’s punches and make opponents think twice before attempting to walk him down but the hard counter right hand that started Cameron’s downfall was an instinctive, reactive punch that displayed his undoubted natural ability.
Whittaker spoke glowingly about his time with Lee before the fight but now he has experienced the benefits of fully immersing himself into life in Dublin, Lee’s influence will only grow as time passes.
Whittaker is an Olympic silver medallist with obvious physical gifts but Lee has also been extremely impressed by the parts of Whittaker’s character that only become apparent during a long training camp and a high pressure fight week.
“You can take the the horse to water but you can’t make him drink so the fighter does all the work. He was the one that had to put up with all that he went through the last how many months,” Lee said.
“I know that dark place because I went through a similar thing after my first loss. That was the reason I reached out to him because I could see a talent there that was going to go to waste. Not go to waste but maybe not be realised if he didn’t get that guidance.
“As a fighter there’s no limit. There’s no ceiling to how far this guy can go. He’s got all the talent in the world and he’s beginning to put it all together now.”