S O C I A L S K I L L S ONLY 11 FIGHTS INTO HIS PRO CAREER, LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT PROSPECT BEN WHITTAKER HAS ALREADY GATECRASHED THE GLOBAL BOXING SCENE COURTESY OF A DAZZLING SKILL SET AND A COLOSSAL ONLINE FOLLOWING By Dom Farrell
M atheus Cunha is an international soccer player for Brazil, the most successful nation in the history of the World Cup. He plays for Manchester United, the 20-time champions of England. Prior to his transfer to United for $83.5 million in June 2025, he excelled for another club in the English Premier League: Wolverhampton Wanderers – the local team of Tokyo Olympics boxing silver medalist and light heavyweight prosepct Ben Whittaker. Following his fifth-round TKO of Khalid Graidia in February 2024, Whittaker was taking in a game at Wolves’ Molineux Stadium when Cunha, who wasn’t playing in the match, knocked on the window of a corporate hospitality box to get his attention. “He goes, ‘Brother, brother, can I have a photo?’” Whittaker recalls. “So I took a photo, we talked, and he left. I said to my brother, ‘Who the hell was that, man?’ He said his name, but
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