In Conversation with Ben Shalom
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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.
It's mental. I mean, you get stopped there. And I kid you not, I get stopped there at customs going through by the policeman asking about a fight.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're all so friendly. Look, I love it. I think it's an amazing city. I don't want to make this an advert for Belfast, but it's a beautiful city, and it's changed a lot in the years I've been going, and it was a great weekend.
Just to say, as Ben said, you've got to be careful of making sure we're not selling Belfast. There are other cities available inside the United Kingdom and Ireland you can go to for a stag do, but between us, Belfast is an absolute corker, excuse the expression. Ben, I've sort of drawn up a shopping list of things to go through and walk through, but I want to start with, if I can, on a day that Dalton Smith's pulled out of his world title defence, I want to start with Adam Azim. Where are we with Adam Azim fights and whoever it's going to be and when might it be and who's going to be screening it?
Obviously, he was due to fight on January 31st against Gustavo Lemos and had to pull out with an injury, so it was a horrible night for us because it was his first night on the BBC. Obviously fought against Kurt Scobie on the Eubank Bend 2 undercard. Had a great performance there.
It was good that night, wasn't it?
Yeah, very good. Yeah, it was really good. And unfortunately had to pull out with a hand injury week before, which was horrible for us. I mean, we went on with the show, but it was a big fight to lose for the number two position in the IBA. Obviously, Richardson Hitchens, the champion, has now vacated, which makes it even more important of a fight because it's for him. one fight away from a world title and um yeah unfortunately gustavo lemos who is contracted to fight and rescheduled the fight for may the 30th as it appears to have pulled out and his manager and promoter um are claiming innocence and they're going to drop him and this and that and no one can get hold of him and
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