Ben Shalom clears up what happened during his altercation with Frank Warren at the Chris Eubank Jr. vs Kamil Szeremeta weigh-in
BOXXER promoter Ben Shalom attempted to clear up what happened on stage with Queensberry promoter Frank Warren in Riyadh last weekend, when Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol clashed for the undisputed light-heavyweight championship.
Shalom started, “For those who don’t know too much about boxing, we’re a young promotional company that have grown really fast in an old, established industry, that the same couple of guys have been running for a long time, and that shows.
“We were over in Riyadh last week, and there was the usual promoter tricks of “you must come here” and “you mustn’t go there”, so it got to a stage where our fighters were confused and, as agreed with Queensberry, I was to represent BOXXER with our fighters, Frank [Warren] was to be there with his, and Eddie [Hearn] was to be there with his fighters.
“There was a wink as I got on stage and they tried, as they have on previous occasions, to make sure I couldn’t get near my fighters and do the face-off with them. By the way, I think the whole thing is ridiculous anyway as promoters shouldn’t be anywhere around that, but given they were, we were within our rights to do the same.
“Frank lost his cool and I think Eddie claimed I shoved him and, for the first time, I was relieved there were cameras and I think it’s given people an insight into what it’s like behind the scenes. The push is there for everyone to see.”
Ben Shalom stepped in front of Frank Warren as he ushered Chris Eubank Jr towards his face-off with opponent Kamil Szeremeta, which prompted an angered Warren to push Shalom just slightly with one hand.
The pair of promoters then engaged in a heated exchange on stage for everyone to see.
Ben continued, “As boxing is such a closed shop and because it’s all in the public eye, it’s perhaps a lot more overt than what you’d see in other forms of business. That’s all it is. It’s not personal. They’ve been running the sport for 40, 50 years and they’re not going to like anyone coming in.
“There’s a reason why nobody’s been able to break into the market before, but we’ve worked extremely hard to do so and it gets to the stage that they have to work with you, fights need to be made and then there becomes a level of acceptance.
“A year ago, or two years ago, they wouldn’t be doing fights with us, so now they are, that’s a testament to the fighters that we’ve built and the platform that we’ve built. Over time, things become easier.”
The simmering rivalry has seen calls for a BOXXER vs Queensberry event, which Shalom has instantly agreed with, “I’d love to. He’s on a very good run at the moment and that’s probably why his ego is where it is right now.
“We’d love to do a BOXXER vs Queensberry event, but it takes two to tango and we’ll see what happens.
“With Turki Al-Sheikh’s involvement and Riyadh Season’s involvement, they don’t care about the politics and now you’re seeing fights being forced to be made that otherwise wouldn’t be made.
“I’m sure it could be made in the future and it would be very tasty between the two businesses.”