Last week was a rough one for Boxxer’s Ben Shalom.
Social media turned on him for kiboshing the British heavyweight title fight many hoped they were getting, between champion Fabio Wardley and former Olympian Frazer Clarke, and he was subsequently hung out to dry by all and sundry, after Clarke had been withdrawn from the purse bids.
“I knew it was going to be noisy, but you know what?” Shalom reflected. “I wasn’t involved in the purse bid stuff. I was never involved in calling for it [it was called by Clarke’s management team, 258]. My plan was never to fight Fabio Wardley next and so from our perspective it was… things never changed.”
Anticipation was high about the purse bids. It seemed everyone in British boxing had their opinion about who would win the bids, where the fight would end up and what would happen. Then, when all the speculation was removed and the bout that never was imploded, the flax came in Shalom’s direction.
“I think it was the perfect storm with the purse bid and Frazer being… anyone that calls him out online he’ll get upset about, because he’s new to this level of scrutiny,” the promoter explained. “He’s been an amateur for a long time. He’s now come into a world that is vicious and he’s got a target on his back. It’s the perfect storm of everything, and in those situations you can make an easy decision which you know is the wrong one and not what you planned for or you can make a hard one. It was nothing to do with business. It was nothing to do with money. It wasn’t to do with platforms. It was to do with this was never Frazer Clarke’s next fight.”
Shalom wants his fighter to have rounds before he fights the more seasoned pro in Wardley. Yes, Clarke’s amateur pedigree is something else, but these bids were for a 12-round championship fight and Clarke has done six rounds once and while his last fight was scheduled for eight, it only lasted two.
The Boxxer boss added: “He’s been fighting six rounders for a reason. His trainer [Angel Hernandez] wasn’t aware of the purse bid being called for and ultimately for his development we want to make the [Wardley] fight this year but it was never the next one. That’s what it came down to. It was the perfect storm but I had to make that decision.”
Clarke has cut a dejected figure online, but Shalom says the fighter understands and that it was a team decision and that Clarke will know who has his best interests at heart. Clarke also understands that Wardley will come, just not next. That is more likely to be a durable lump who Clarke can get valuable rounds in against, some like a Mariusz Wach as they look to bank 10 rounds.
“When his trainer wants him to fight six rounds initially – because they’re working on a few things – then you can’t for us as a promoter and say, ‘Right, we’re going into a 12-round British title fight,’ that’s just not sensible,” Shalom added. “Yes, the asterisk is his age, yes we think he can be the fastest heavyweight to win a British title and we want to move him quickly. Joe Joyce won a British title after his 12th fight and Frazer will get everything that comes to him. But yes, it’s been an interesting week.”
Shalom has had his share of issues over the last couple of weeks. One was Joshua Buatsi’s ho-hum debut against Pawel Stepien but Shalom insists on seeing the positives. Like Lawrence Okolie, who came across from Matchroom and DAZN and failed to sparkle on his Sky Sports debut against David Light, the case of Buatsi was similar. But Okolie has now landed a big fight in Bournemouth, defending his world title in Bournemouth on May 27, and Shalom thinks Buatsi can follow into a significant fight, too.
“It was almost a necessary evil for us where we wanted to sign a big fighter but they’ve been out of the ring for that long that they need a fight back,” Shalom said. “Stepien was a very good opponent and very hard to get on top of, and Buatsi found that. But what we’ve now got is a fighter hungry to jump straight into the big fights and prove himself, so I think we’re going to see a very similar to Lawrence. Buatsi has always been known as an exciting fighter, that doesn’t change overnight. He will be an exciting fighter and he will be in exciting fights against fighters who want to come and fight and the reality was Stepien just didn’t want to come and fight. He [Buatsi] did huge viewing figures and he had the huge platform and he was there to do it and was disappointed he didn’t get the knockout but for me I’m happy because now there’s no excuses. He’s got the rust off and now we can go to the big fights.”
Shalom seems certain that either Dan Azeez or former two-time world title challenger Anthony Yarde could be next for Buatsi. The latter has been years in the making.
“The next fight, for me, is a British guy and it’s going to be one of the biggest British guys,” Shalom said. “Azeez [who is with Boxxer] is obviously the easiest one to make, the numbers one and two in the WBA and so perhaps that will be a final eliminator but let’s see. When I look at the domestic scene and see the cruiserweights we’ve got… Yarde, Buatsi, Azeez, [Lyndon] Arthur, [Craig] Richards, there’s guys there that can all fight at a high level and I think there are fights there for both Dan and Buatsi, and obviously you’ve got Ben Whittaker coming through, but we’re probably 18 months off that level [for Whittaker] but we’ll see. I think it’s a special division. I’d love to see everyone fight each other. I think we have three of the best light-heavyweights in this country, and we think we can make the big fights.”
