BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND – Ben Whittaker took just two rounds to silence the doubters. A huge right hand caused Liam Cameron to unravel, dropping the Sheffield man, and Whittaker followed up, causing the referee Howard Foster to stop the fight and put the Whittaker-Cameron feud to bed.

The fight was scheduled for 10-three-minute rounds, an issue that had been the centrepiece of a bizarre fight week story involving Cameron saying he had signed to box 12 rounds but Whittaker’s team saying he was going to fight over 10. In the end, that debate proved completely futile.

“I should have done the 12 now, shouldn’t I?” Whittaker joked. “It’s the best camp of my life, and thanks to Andy Lee… You saw the real Ben Whittaker.”

It marked the first time the pair had teamed up, and for their first fight together they headlined at the bp Pulse Arena, part of the larger Resorts World in Birmingham.

Cameron was cheered to the ring on what should have been enemy territory, while the divisive Whittaker was announced to boos. 

As that happened, Whittaker’s former Olympics teammate Frazer Clarke pointed to both of his temples and told Whittaker to focus on what was in front of him rather than the noise.

Whittaker looked sharp early, too. His jab was pointed and he whipped in occasional rights. Cameron shrugged at the power, but Whittaker had set his stall out and power was nothing to do with it; it was speed and movement, and then opportunities would come.

Whittaker was up and out for the second with enthusiasm and conviction. He then started adding lefts to the body to his repertoire. Cameron tried to march him down, crowd him, and outmuscle him on the inside, but Whittaker’s sharpness soon paved the way for a booming, precise right hand that travelled from Cameron’s chin – where it detonated – down his spinal cord and into his boots with a jolt. 

Whittaker knew it registered and knew he had a chance, and with that he flew in and fired away. With Cameron’s back to the ropes, Whittaker lanced him with another right hand, and then another thudded off Cameron’s head and as Cameron threatened to be overwhelmed, Foster intervened after 1:53 of the second round.

Whittaker, to the crescendo of boos, cupped his ears, but the boos could never have sounded so good.

Cameron, the 34 year old who served a suspension for taking recreational drugs, had felt his career was over, and having battled alcoholism he’s returned for its most lucrative stage. 

The length of the bout was being questioned, providing the chief talking point over the rematch and placing what happened previously firmly in the rear-view mirror.

Because what had happened last time, when Whittaker and Cameron met in Saudi Arabia in October, was controversial. The bout ended with both men tumbling over the top rope and Whittaker claiming he was too injured to fight on but Cameron, seen by many as holding the upper hand, hungry to continue. As it was, their fight went to the scorecards and it was all square after six rounds, leaving nothing resolved.

This time, it was put to bed in emphatic fashion, and Whittaker improved to 9-0-1 (6 KOs).

Cameron wanted the rematch, but Whittaker was initially quiet; that he agreed to it earned the former Olympian credit from his detractors. Whittaker then joined Lee, committing to a training camp in Ireland, and he spoke of punching with more spite while, at Saturday’s weigh in, Cameron merely thought Whittaker had shrunk.

But Whittaker’s reputation once again grew on Sunday evening. Often one with the highlight-reel moves and the ability to goad an opponent that draw viewers to viral clips, he added the biggest stoppage of his career to date to that reel, and silenced those who doubted that the unlikely underdog from Sheffield might have had his number.