Promoter Ben Shalom has shed light on the repercussions of postponing the undisputed world title fight between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall last weekend, describing the fight not happening as a ‘financial disaster’.
The fight, set to headline an historic all-female card at the 02, was rescheduled due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Speaking to the 5 Live Boxing Podcast, Shalom did not shy away from the fact that the cancellation was hugely detrimental.
“We’ve lost more than anyone on this show – from a financial perspective it’s a disaster there’s no other way to put it.
This is an international fight night with hundreds of people travelling in from around the world.
But, the fighters, yes, they are the ones that are hurting the most. What I would say is we are dealing with female fighters now that are earning 7 figure purses, which is remarkable in itself – they are hugely well-paid athletes.
We will support our fighters, don’t get me wrong. We’ll be doing advances making sure that nobody goes without anything.”
The card was controversially pulled on Friday afternoon on the guidance of the British Boxing Board of Control – after the fighters had worked hard in preparation to make weight.
However, although Boxxer boss Shalom admitted the decision was a financial hit for the company, he was quick to concede that he was of the belief it was the correct decision.
“When something like this happens, it does put it in perspective, there are more important things from our perspective than sport and business.
I actually controversially maybe believe it was the right decision to reflect and not celebrate in the face that quickly with what was going on.
One thing that has been on my mind and I think the whole team is there are a lot of fans travelling in for this, hotels, flights, weekends away and that’s the most difficult one.
All the tickets will be transferred to Oct 15th, there will be no changes with that. We’re working now with hotel partners and travel partners to see what can be done to subsidise any travel and hotels that happened that week because it was difficult and I’m sure there were a lot of people that lost a lot of money.”
The fight between Shields and Marshall has been rescheduled for October 15th at the 02 in London, with further information on ticketing and travel reimbursements to follow.