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Callum Simpson is deep into his preparations for his appearance on the undercard of the British and Commonwealth heavyweight title fight between Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke, but the unbeaten super middleweight is still waiting for an opponent to be confirmed.
On Tuesday evening, he had a brainwave.
“Only me and Ben Whittaker without opponents for March 31st…..Simpson v Whittaker anyone?” the 27 year old posted on social media.
Rather than hurriedly asking his prize asset to delete his post, Simpson’s manager, Kevin Maree, replied: “Who wants to see it? [George] Groves and [James] Degale did it at this stage. Let’s go!”
Maree knows the sport inside out and understands that BOXXER would be unlikely to match two of their potential stars anytime soon but he is also fully aware of the benefits of laying the table for a massive future showdown between them.
“Callum is genuinely a throwback,” he told boxingscene.com. “He will fight anybody. From the moment I signed him he’s always wanted the big fights and to be on the big shows. Ben Whittaker really excites Callum. We’ve spoken about him for a good while now.
“In my mind – if it’s done right – Callum Simpson and Ben Whittaker will be this era’s Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank. Whittaker is Eubank; flashy style and people love or hate him. Callum is Benn; no-nonsense. He gets in there and takes people’s heads off.
“Will it be March 31st at the O2? Probably not. Would Callum do it on March 31st? Damn right he would. Logic tells you it won’t happen now but common sense tells you that it’s a fight that gonna happen in the future.”
After serving his apprenticeships on the small-hall scene, Barnsley’s Simpson (13-0, 9 KOs) burst on to Sky Sports last year by blasting out Celso Neves and has taken to the spotlight like a seasoned professional. He has been installed as the mandatory challenger for Zak Chelli’s British super middleweight title but he is a big super middleweight and will almost certainly end up at light heavyweight, particularly if Whittaker is waiting there.
“Callum deserves his moment in the sun and to build his name,” Maree said. “We’re hoping he headlines his own show soon and that will give him a leg up in terms of getting on people’s radars. Ben will keep having his moments and Callum will have his and then in 12 or 18 months, my God, what a fight that could be. They could fight many times.”
Tensions will obviously rise as a potential fight gets bigger and draws closer but although Maree sees the fight eventually becoming a modern version of Benn-Eubank – for the time being at least – this particular rivalry is purely a sporting one. Maree simply believes he has the better fighter and is looking forward to Simpson getting the chance to prove it.
“Ben’s a smart guy,” he said. “He’ll know what’s happening when people say his name. I tell my fighters that it’s not an insult if people call your name. We think Ben is absolutely top class and outside of boxing he’s been an absolute gentlemen. I’m glad we’ve got a character on the scene. We need that and when we come out with comments like we did on Tuesday it’s not a disrespectful thing. It’s a massive compliment.
“We rate him as the best of the UK prospects and that’s why we want to put him in the ring with Callum, because we think the same way about Callum.They should be branded and marketed together because eventually they will clash.”