After nine routinely one-sided rounds and three frighteningly dangerous ones, Whittaker was handed a unanimous decision. The scores were 117-111, 116-112, 115-113. 

The win makes the 29-year-old from Birmingham the mandatory challenger for Dmitry Bivol’s IBF light heavyweight title. The Russian also holds the Ring, WBO and WBA belts.

Speaking immediately after the fight, it didn’t sound like Whittaker (13-0-1, 9 KOs) was particularly keen on the prospect. Instead, he called for a return with Wallace.

“I want to thank Wallace; great fight. I think we should do it again, and I'll beat him down even better,” Whittaker said.

“If I'm honest, it was too easy. I took my eye off the ball a little bit, and he caught me with a good shot. That’s boxing. But what did I do? Dug it out and won.”

During the final round, Wallace landed left hand after left hand as Whittaker staggered around the ring. He denied he was hurt.

“Not really, to be fair, he was just making it really messy. A lot of elbows, a lot of the back of the head but it's a 12-round fight at top level and I loved it.”

Whittaker’s early career showboating earned him plenty of attention and did wonders for his social media following, but it also overshadowed some lackadaisical and inconsistent performances. Since joining up with former WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee, he has been all business. 

After moving to Dublin in the aftermath of a disappointing technical draw with Liam Cameron in October 2024, Whittaker reeled off four quick wins in a row but once again highlighted some real frailties tonight. 

Wallace (17-2, 12 KOs) wisely boxed his way into the fight behind his southpaw jab while Whittaker probed for openings, jabbed to head and body, and tried to draw Wallace into a mistake. 

With so much on the line, it was understandable that neither man wanted to make too big a move too early, but scoring shots were few and far between until the two fell into a clinch early in the third. While Wallace chose to hold, Whittaker went to work and scored with a nice left hook. He followed it up with another left hook that sent Wallace back to the ropes. 

Wallace was born in Northern Ireland but now lives in Australia. A good number of his old fans and friends made the trip across the Irish Sea to support him, but despite entering the ring with a glossy record and a No.2 ranking with the IBF, the 30-year-old southpaw couldn’t get any kind of foothold in the fight. 

Clearly wary of the speed of Whittaker’s counter punches, he retreated into his shell and allowed Whittaker to dictate the pace and range of the fight. 

Whittaker scored with an overhand right at the end of the 5th round and a crisp counter at the beginning of the 6th, but he was content to move, jab and shoot the occasional right hand. 

If Whittaker was sailing toward a comfortable victory, Wallace was drifting toward the kind of tame defeat he may regret for years to come. 

Wallace finally found the mark with a straight left hand in the 9th and found two cleaner, better shots at the start of the 10th. The first of which forced Whittaker to clinch and then trip to the floor.

After coasting through the fight, Whittaker looked suddenly and alarmingly vulnerable and Wallace’s left looked like a dangerous weapon. Rather than listen to Lee and box and move, Whittaker decided to stand and fight.

With his big moment slipping away, Wallace finally went for broke. A huge left hand hurt Whittaker badly, and he tumbled to the canvas. The referee chose not to give him a count but he hadn’t recovered and fell again.

An exhausted Whittaker fell apart. He was hurt time and time again over the final round, but Wallace couldn’t find the shots to put him away.

Whittaker survived, but there will be concerns that what looked like a serene procession to a world title shot turned into a white-knuckle ride.