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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This is Five Live Boxing. So in a week when three enormous fights are taking place in all sorts of places, well, Wolverhampton, Tokyo, and Las Vegas, I decided to sit down with Ben Shalom, the boss at Boxer, the man with the deal with the BBC, the man who seems to be, well, always getting stick from just about everybody. I'm Steve Bunce, and this is Five Live Boxing.
So I'm inside one of those fancy workspaces that you get all over the country. There's palm trees, double espresso machines, a table tennis table. In fact, if anyone fancies a game of table tennis, Ben Shalom and I are going to have to move because we're right in the way of the forearm return. First of all, Ben, how are you doing? How are you? I'm very well.
I'm very well. Well, you're not doing very well, are you? Tell the truth. Yeah, I just said to Steve, I had my stag do this weekend in Belfast. which was an interesting one, particularly with the boxing fans out in the pubs. But it was a three-day weekend that was very, very good. My mum's from Belfast, so all my uncles and everything were there, and it was a big weekend.
It is a massive fight city. I mean, it's a fight city that I've been going to for about 30 years, and I can remember going there for fights... in the sort of early 90s and being recognised. As far as I know, I'd never been on TV, but you're recognised.
So this was it. It's ridiculous. So we were saying, right, where are we going to go for a stag deal? And I said, look, I can't be getting... I know what my mates are like, so are they going to have me drinking? Are they going to have me out till late? I was like, well, we're not doing Manchester. We're not doing anywhere up here. My wedding's abroad, so we're going to do somewhere in the UK.
And we thought, one of them thought, I wasn't involved in the choice. Oh, let's do Belfast. Ben's family are there and no one would recognise him. Not recognising, not realising. It was probably one of the worst places you could have chose because everyone's boxing mad.
I mean, it's the one city where 13 and 14-year-old boys and girls that have won the youth championships are feted and stopped in the street.
Correct.
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Chapter 2: Why was Belfast chosen for Ben Shalom's stag do?
And they tend to be correct on big fights like that. We have a version of that in some ways with Adam Azim and Daughton Smith. A fight where... When was the first time it was discussed? This is at least four years ago. Now, Daughton's obviously gone on to win a world title, which he pulled out of a busy day today, which he also pulled out.
Yeah, yeah, Puello's pulled out. And, look... Dalton Smith against Adam Azim is the fight to make in the division, I think, never mind just in Britain, I think in the division itself. I agree, yeah. I think it's a fight that's very close to happening. I think Dalton Smith, shame for him to pull out of his, I think, his first headline. First offence.
Well, first offence, but it was a big show for him. A big homecoming, it's perfect. Obviously, he had him fighting the week before, and we could set up for a fight later in the year. So, look, I know it's a fight Eddie wants to make, I know it's a fight we want to make, I think, It is the two best fighters in Britain. It's probably the two best in the world.
But as you said, it is sort of that AJ Fury. But it will happen at the right time in terms of both fighters will be at their peak. I think it's going to happen definitely within the next 12 months. So Adam Azim being 23 years old, Dalton being current world champion.
hopefully it can be for a unification but yeah it's always been the fight that we want to make and every fighter needs a dance partners particularly to become a pay-per-view star and i think adam and dalton both dream of becoming a pay-per-view star well they need each other to do that in my opinion no and also it'd be that one of those rarest of things so we you know we often get fights that we've won waited for a long time they come together or the key one of course is floyd and wayward and manny pacquiao came together far too too late and and
This one, it would be great if we did get it inside two years.
No, well, listen, I think it would be really, really... I'm talking near, near future. I think in his next two or three fights, I expect that to happen for Adam Azim. And, yeah, I think it's a massive fight, and it's a fight that we've wanted for a long time, but... hopefully can be for a unification, let's say.
Yeah, and that would be even bigger for us. Let me drop down my shopping list in no particular order. Lauren Price, one of my favourite fighters. I did a lovely half an hour with her before her last fight down in Sheffield where she opened up, really opened up, and you got the real sense of who Lauren is and what's more, a real sense of Lauren's drive.
I missed that show down there because I was pre-working for Five Live on a different show on the same night, and that was where Clarissa Shields showed up. And they got in the ring and they had a bit of a chat. Lots of respect being thrown from both of them. And I wasn't sure. Obviously, it looked good. Visually, it looked good. But that is a real fight.
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Chapter 3: What insights does Ben Shalom share about Adam Azim's future fights?
100%. Absolutely. But it doesn't look like... I have to say that they necessarily want Lauren Price, but Lauren will move to the biggest fight possible, and that one is Clarissa.
Does it make things more difficult going forward, the new or the growing, expanding MVP platform? So they've signed Michaela Mayer, they've signed just about everybody. There's only about half a dozen of the top women. You've got a couple of them that aren't under their umbrella.
What I would say is you speak to a lot of fighters and this is a thing why boxing is a fragmented sport. They want to be prioritised and they want to become stars. And when I speak to Clarissa Shields about why she wants to remain independent... Because she believes she's the best. She wants a team behind her to believe she's the best.
Was Chantal Cameron happy boxing on a Caroline Dubois undercard maybe as a third fight on the card? Probably not. Third fight on the card. She's beaten Katie Taylor. She's been in the headline nine. She's a legitimate big star. That's going to make it very difficult. Does Lauren Price want to be prioritised like the way she is? as the biggest fighter in the UK.
Does Fran Hennessy want those big nights as well? And her naming lights, you know, they all do. Skye Nicholson probably does with the matchroom. And so I think you are going to see that fighters that want to be promoted and prioritized by the promoters...
there will be fragmentation that's always been the way in boxing and I think that's going to be very difficult for you know I've worked with a lot of female fighters and they they want to be you know they believe in themselves and they want to be the star and I think that's going to be very difficult to handle Savannah Marshall you know another one perhaps You know, he wants the headline shows.
He wants to be the star. And deserves to be the star.
Absolutely. The two fights, in theory, assuming everything can be worked out, two fights and you and Dimitri can sort it out, the Lauren Price two-fight deal with Chloessa. Is there any kind of option for any truth to the rumour about an MMA third fight?
Honestly, I think that fight... I'm not sure where that came from.
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Chapter 4: What challenges is Adam Azim facing with his upcoming fight?
Let's get this absolutely right. And that's one thing that will... Clarissa and a lot of detractors will always put, well, no one's on your level. She's had to go up to heavyweight, she's been at light heavyweight, whatever, because ultimately those dance partners of that level don't exist. Well, Lauren Price is probably, for someone like Clarissa, a breath of fresh air.
You need legacies, you need rivalries to grow any sport. Clarissa will recognise that. As much as she'll recognise it's a huge challenge.
Now, obviously, as much as I recognize that going up is a terrific fight, but before that was maybe thought about and talked about, there'd been the news that Katie Taylor was looking for a dance partner. We've gone from the ridiculous to the sublime here. Was there ever any talk about Lauren in a sort of catchweight fight with Katie Price, you know, this croak bar thing?
Because the shopping list for Katie Taylor is quite ridiculous. There's like 79 fighters on it.
Yeah, everyone's queuing up. Everyone's queuing up, yeah. And it's not an orderly queue. I know. Let's be honest. I think they will want a fight that doesn't present risk. And Katie deserves that. At her stage in her career, she deserves that crowd part night. And probably it makes sense for her.
her to go out and have a celebratory fight, that means that Lauren Price will not be getting an invite to Dublin. And who can blame them?
And there's lots of other women that won't be getting an invite as well. But no, I just wanted to ask, because it's one of those odd... Oh, listen, it's a dream fight for... Katie's a legend.
Lauren looks at the way Katie... is revered by her fans in Ireland and has built that legacy and wants to do that in Wales. So there's a lot of respect there, but would that have been a super fight? Unbelievable. But is it Katie Taylor's prerogative to have it?
a less risky fight at this stage in the career probably but you never know listen I asked anyway just because I had to let's go carry on down the list Callum Simpson yeah where are we with Callum Simpson so he obviously he activated his rematch clause against Troy Williamson he has had a little injury that's kept him out a bit longer than expected it was talking of a June fight wasn't it well it still still possibly will be June it won't be May
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