Floyd Mayweather and Anthony Joshua made wild predictions about Ben Whittaker years before he turned pro

EXCLUSIVE: Floyd Mayweather and Anthony Joshua had big expectations for Ben Whittaker long before the world had ever heard his name.

Now, combat sports fans from far and wide have watched in awe as the gifted athlete has made a mockery of his opponents with his entertaining showmanship. However, while Whittaker now has a reputation for effortlessly making his rivals miss, it was ‘AJ’ who first realised that the Birmingham boxer had the potential to become a superstar.

Anthony Joshua told Floyd Mayweather that Ben Whittaker was ‘The future’ of boxing

In 2017, Antony Joshua and Floyd Mayweather held a meet-and-greet with their beloved fans. During the event, the then heavyweight world champion took the opportunity to introduce Ben Whittaker to ‘Money’. While the slick fighter wouldn’t go to the Olympics until 2020, the powerhouse had high hopes for him, branding his countryman, ‘The future’. Mayweather then took one look at the warrior in front of him, and made a prediction of his own.

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In an exclusive interview with Sporf, Whittaker reminisced: “It’s funny, I’m not really into all that meet and greet stuff, I don’t like it, but some man that I knew said, ‘Come down’. I was like, ‘I know AJ, so I’ll go’. I went there and met him. Floyd Mayweather was one of my favourite fighters, so it was a good moment, to be fair. It’s funny how things turned out because I’m getting there. I don’t know if I want to, but he did say I’d become a heavyweight, I’m light heavyweight now. It was a good interaction, and it shows he saw something in me then, and it’s coming to fruition now.”

Ben Whittaker explains how he’d beat Dmitry Bivol

On Saturday evening, Whittaker returns to action against Braian Suarez in an eagerly anticipated clash at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, UK. And should the talented sportsman emerge from his bout with the Argentinian unscathed, then he’ll move one step closer to a showdown with Dmitry Bivol.

When asked how he’d emerge victorious against the legend, the 28-year-old replied: “Just be yourself. It’s all good and well saying it, of course, but I have been at a high level as an amateur, and those make-or-break fights, it’s about going out there and fighting your fight, not their fight, and you can do that in the professional game as well. At the end of the day, he’s just another man. Yeah, he’s powerful, but nobody moves like me at light heavyweight, nobody has my speed, athleticism, or agility, so I’d just have to use all of that. I’d leave him shadowboxing in there.”

Whittaker vs. Suarez and the whole card is live on DAZN worldwide.

Featured Image Credit: Getty