Ben Whittaker following Anthony Joshua’s wisdom

The 20-year-old, who trains alongside the unified heavyweight champion of the world at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, barely broke a sweat as he earned a place in the Commonwealth Games quarter-final with a unanimous victory.

His opponent – Dariel Ebanks of the Cayman Islands – offered up little and was picked apart by the British number one, who barely broke a sweat as he danced around the ring evading shots and throwing efficient, point-scoring punches.

If all goes to plan Darlaston’s Whittaker knows he should return home from the Gold Coast with the gold and he believes Joshua’s wise words will ensure he remains focused on achieving just that.

“I feel great, first fight of the tournament so there’s no point going out there and killing myself, getting a niggle or a cut,” said the middleweight. “Obviously, make it convincing, which I did. Get through, get the rust off and I’m ready to go again.

“I didn’t do everything I could have done but there wasn’t really much coming back or nothing to worry about. Being and training around Anthony Joshua, who has come through the same set-up as us at the EIS and if he can do it, come from where he’s come from with the background he had, he’s made himself a role model for all young boxers. We’ve got to stay level headed, keep working hard and anything’s possible really.

“He always gives us little pointers to stay on it. I’m the number one in Great Britain now but there’s always people coming up behind me trying to take the spot. The one thing he does say is enjoy the ride because sometimes it doesn’t last, you never know so all I’ve got to do is keep enjoying what I’m doing that’s the main thing but stay switched on.”

The biggest danger Whittaker faced on Sunday came from his opponent’s lunging head, the West Bromwich-born fighter looked exceptionally light on his feet not willing to risk a cut at this early stage of the competition.

And when he meets his next opponent – Josh Docherty of Scotland on Wednesday – Whittaker insists he will use his boxing nous again to step things up another level.

“I’m a bit of a perfectionist, I’m my own worst critic,” he added. “So is my dad, he’ll probably watch it and say nothing was good but you need that sometimes. I’m young but a lot of people know who I am, I’m one of the favourites for gold but I just take it stride by stride. I just need to add to it, it’s all down to my IQ in the ring and if I listen to what I’ve been told then the ‘W’ is coming back to England.”