Boxxer’s CEO Ben Shalom has spoken openly about his ongoing feud with Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn.
Shalom is very much the young new face in boxing. He stepped in to take over Matchroom’s place on Sky Sports and has slowly but surely built a solid stable of fighters and put on plenty of big nights, from Claressa Shields versus Savannah Marshall to Amir Khan versus Kell Brook.
Along the way, however, there have been spats with Matchroom over contests between Fabio Wardley and Frazier Clarke, and Dalton Smith versus Adam Azim, about which Hearn has fired plenty of shots at Shalom.
Speaking on the MMA Hour, Shalom expanded on things from his side.
“Ultimately, I get it. We’re like the young, annoying little sh*t that has broken into the industry and is doing well and is the master of great stable and probably has some of the future stars in the sport, particularly in this country. And at every hurdle we keep coming through. It used to be that we can’t run many shows, we can’t do a pay-per-view show, we can’t sign an Olympian, we’re not going to stand up regularly, we’re not going to be able to get sponsors, we’re not going to be able to get the venues.
“And every time we’ve rose to the occasion and we keep growing. I’d love for them to take a different approach and not see it as they do and I’d love in the future to be able to work with them – they’re probably the only promoters we’ve found difficult to work with.”
He then conceded that he recognises this is all part of the business.
“But I do get it. It’s an industry they have run and been involved with for decades and in any world in any industry you expect the same. If I was going to start up a computer business to rival Apple I’m sure they’d be met with the same disdain at the start so I get that and it’s just something we have to come through. You’ve got to have a thick skin in this game and that’s what this is and we’ll continue to grow and focus on what we do.”
Next up for Shalom is this weekend’s much anticipated heavyweight fight between Wardley and Clarke.