Ben Whittaker's recent scare against Conor Wallace has raised questions about whether he has the attributes needed to win a world title, says Sky Sports expert Matthew Macklin. After controlling the fight from the start, Whittaker was troubled by a left hand from Wallace in the 10th round and then looked ragged in the 12th as he repeatedly slipped to the canvas before clinging on to claim a points win on Saturday in Birmingham. Whittaker's victory lined up a shot at the IBF light-heavyweight belt which is held by unified champion Dmitry Bivol, but Macklin believes the Olympic silver medallist is not yet ready to challenge the Russian.
Macklin told Sky Sports: "Ben has been on a run of pretty spectacular performances, hasn't he? That said, if we're honest about the calibre of opposition, we know it's pretty low for him and where he is aiming towards being. "All of a sudden, they stepped it up again with Conor Wallace.
He boxed really well for most of the fight, but nonetheless, at the end of the fight, he struggled. "He got caught and then struggled to shake off the effects of that shot. He recovered momentarily, but not properly.
He got his head together a little bit, but was still hurt because you could see he didn't really regain control of the fight. "I think he needs more than one [fight before Bivol], probably a few. "While Conor Wallace is a nice boxer, you wouldn't put him in the category of your Bivols and your Callum Smiths.
"Look at the fight between Callum Smith and Joshua Buatsi, and what those two went through in that fight, and then you see how Whittaker unravelled on Saturday night, there's no way you'd say he beats those two guys. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "He has the skill, the sleekness, the speed and the savvy to mix it with those guys, but has he got the toughness, the chin, the stamina, the power, the hardness to mix it with those guys over 12 hard rounds? He hasn't shown that so far.
"That's not to say that Ben isn't tough or hard. But we can only judge him on what we've seen, and we've seen him unravel a couple of times. "In the first Liam Cameron fight, he was unravelling and then obviously they both fell out the ring.
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