Boxxer CEO Ben Shalom has responded to some of the recent statements from rival promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom.
On Wednesday, there was a purse bid scheduled for a mandatory fight between British heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley and Olympic bronze medal winner Frazer Clarke.
However, Hearn – who represents Wardley – was informed at the last minute that Boxxer had pulled Clarke from the purse bids.
The British Boxing Board of Control had ordered Wardley to make the mandatory defense against Clarke.
Shalom claims to have offered Wardley a career-high purse to face Clarke on Sky Sports. But Wardley took to social media to deny Shalom’s take – and says the money presented was less than he made for his last fight.
According to Shalom, a Clarke vs. Wardley showdown could still take place in September. He feels Clarke needs at least one ten round contest before facing Wardley.
Clarke is already scheduled for action on June 10 in London. Shalom wanted to avoid the scenario of Clarke seeing action and then going right back to training camp for a twelve round fight taking place a few weeks later.
“The reason why we pulled him out the bid is he’s fought [scheduled] six-rounders up until now. His last fight went two rounds. We’re not going to sling him in. [If it went to purse bids] you’d have to be taking a 12-rounder potentially in three weeks’ time, with no preparation,” Shalom told Sky Sports.
“It’s not that he won’t beat Fabio Wardley, he’d beat Fabio Wardley on his first fight. But he’s not going to be fighting a 12-rounder in three weeks’ time. So that’s why we’ve made the offer. He will be doing a 10-rounder first and we’ve made an offer to Fabio to take the fight [after].
“It’s best for him to have a 10-rounder before he fights his first 12-rounder. Everyone that’s ever put on a pair of gloves, or ever trained a fighter will tell you, you don’t go from a six-rounder to a 12-rounder overnight, regardless of the quality of opponent.”
Shalom explained that technically Wardley is a free agent and the entire negotiation process was handled with Wardley’s team – without the involvement of Hearn or Matchroom.
“One of the offers is a one-fight deal, no [further] obligation whatsoever. It’s a big fight for British boxing. We’re happy to work with any promoter. When we’ve been dealing with Fabio Wardley’s team, they never once asked us to speak to Matchroom, who we’d have been happy to speak to,” Shalom said.
“This isn’t about a promoter thing, this is about getting a fight together between two fighters and making it as big as possible. We see it as a massive fight for British boxing. We want to build it into the biggest possible spectacle and do it at a time that suits us. We talk about career-high pay days, this is a small payday in the career of Frazer Clarke. You can see the interest in him. This is a boxing decision where a fighter needs saving from himself given he’s not had a 10-rounder yet.
“We have made the offer. We do want the fight. One 10-rounder is all we feel he needs, but we feel it’s a necessary step and we won’t be pushed into a fight that isn’t on Frazer Clarke’s terms. He’s the A-side here. He’s the big name and he’s the one that will have these fights on the terms that he wants.”