BEN WHITTAKER was attacked with a headbutt and an elbow but still managed to win a dull one-sided fight.
The talented 27-year-old Olympic silver winner was assaulted a couple of times by light-heavyweight underdog Ezra Arenyeka, who was rightly deducted a point for his fouling.
But the Selhurst Park fight turned into a bit of a stinker as it was all one-way traffic, with the Brit ace unable or unwilling to push for a stoppage before the judges called it: 100-89, 99-90 and 99-90.
Arenyeka, 28, looked the part with handsome muscles and glittery shorts but he was grossly overmatched and little more than a human punchbag.
Whittaker’s pink gloves peppered him from all sorts of angles and nothing the Nigerian threw back came close to landing.
The final 30 seconds turned into a cringey dance-off, with both pretty boys doing their best Strictly audition.
The Baggies showboater spent more time looking at the freezing audience than his opponent in the second but the action dried up with the rain.
Arenyeka fancied his chances more in the third, hurling haymakers in Whittaker’s vague direction and grabbing him in an attempted sleeper hold straight of the wrestling handbook.
Whittaker had his designer goatee grazed in the fifth when Arenyeka lost the fear of his punches and slung everything at him.
In round six, when the tricks and flicks were getting tiresome, Arenyeka accidentally punched him in the backside, but it was a kick he needed as he coasted around the low gears.
BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKERS
And Whittaker got the shock of his life when he tried to mock his opponent by walking him back to his stall, at the bell, and got a headbutt for his trouble.
Arenyeka lost a point in the seventh when he added an elbow to his headbutt routine but the crowd had long lost interest by then.
Arenyeka threw a hook so wild in round nine he did a full 360-degree spin and fans must have fancied the same move at the turnstiles as the one-sided spar turned sour.
