Ben Whittaker: Azeez, Buatsi, Yarde - I'd be a problem for all of them

His mum wanted him to be a ballet dancer, but Ben Whittaker was always going to fight.

He was steered into dance classes as a child. "Ballroom, ballet, hip hop, samba, everything you can think of," he told Sky Sports. "It got to point where these tights in ballet, I wasn't really feeling it.

"It was my mum who started me first. She didn't really want me to fight."

Whittaker always saw a future for himself in boxing rather than ballet. "I'm not going to lie, I look beautiful in the ring, compared to some people I've got real twinkle toes, but when I was in that ballet room I had two sandbags in my feet. I was stomping out the room," he laughed.

"I don't think I'd have got into any schools or anything like that."

The choice certainly paid off for him. As an amateur boxer he twice won national senior titles. He was a decorated international, winning a bronze medal at the World championships, silver at the European Games and famously silver at the Olympic Games last year.

That led to him being signed by professional promoter BOXXER and broadcaster Sky Sports.

"It helped me. That's why I've got these twinkle toes. I've got good footwork. [Vasiliy Lomachenko] did some type of dancing, so it does work definitely," Whittaker said. "I just fell into boxing and it worked. Boxing called for me."

Movement is a characteristic of his boxing style. He is elusive, hard to hit but accurate with his counter-punches. As a new professional though, due to have his first pro fight on July 30, he is looking to evolve that style.

"You've got to hurt them and knock them out type of thing [in professional boxing]. It's a cruel business, you've got to entertain the fans," Whittaker said.

"As soon as you lose, that's it, so I'll always keep my