Whittaker vs Rivera: Floyd Mayweather & Chris Rock fuel Ben Whittaker’s American boxing dream

Ben Whittaker’s love of America comes from two childhood rituals.

There were the early morning wake-up calls to watch Floyd Mayweather dazzle at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

And then there were the days in front of the TV watching sitcom Everybody Hates Chris when he got to know Brooklyn and New York.

The British light-heavyweight will attempt to live his very own American dream when he faces Richard Rivera in his US debut on Saturday.

Darlaston-born Whittaker, 29, features on the undercard of Xander Zayas’ WBA and WBO super-welterweight title defence against Jaron Ennis at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

It is the next step on the journey that he hopes will one day take him to where multi-weight world champion Mayweather called home for so much of his career, and that is Las Vegas – the fight capital of the world.

“I woke up and watched the big Mayweather fights when I was a kid. I think the first one was Mayweather against Oscar de la Hoya [in 2007] and of course the Ricky Hatton fight,” Whittaker told BBC Sport.

“I was like, ‘Man, this looks crazy. I want to be involved in something like that’. Going into my first fight in America will be the start of that, hopefully.

“I call it baby steps. You start in New York, finish in Vegas.”

But New York and particularly Brooklyn also has some meaning for the West Midlands boxer. That is because he used to devour episodes of the TV sitcom which was a semi-autobiographical show based on comedian Chris Rock.

“I’d say if New York means anything to me, it means Everybody Hates Chris,” Whittaker said. “I just remember watching it and it was set in New York and Brooklyn. Then you also come to a music culture, the city has got a lot of music that I listen to.

“The fashion is big there, too. Weirdly, I’ve been connected to New York a lot of my life, really. I’ve been out there five, six times. I get a lot of love out there, so it’s going to be a good one.”