Well, it's my great pleasure I'd be joined on the podcast this week with
somebody I'm not sure a lot of American fans are familiar with, but he's
certainly an important figure in the sport of boxing. Is none other than Ben
Shalom, who is the big boss man of the promotional outfit boxer, one
of the leading promoters in the world, certainly in the United Kingdom. Ben,
thank you for being on the show today. I appreciate we got a
lot to talk about, no problem. I think this is my first US
outcast as well, so delights it to be joining. Well, it is
my honor. So just to let some folks know, I mean, you
are the chief of the Boxer Outfit. You guys have you know, several
outstanding fighters in your stable on name off you will talk about some of their
fights. You know, you have fights coming up, Josh Bowatzi against Dan
Aziz. You've got the great young prospect Adam Azim, the outstanding women's up
and coming fighter Caroline Dubois. You promote the WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Pillum Smith.
You've been the promoter for the great women's boxer Savannah Marshall. I mean,
plenty of excellent fighters within the stable. You're the promoter of Natasha Jonas,
one of the top female boxers in the world. So just to start
off, could you just give us, you know, the short version,
if you will. I've had a bench alone age thirty, by the way,
a very young man for boxing promotion. Get involved as a promoter in
this great sport. Yeah, it's a crazy story. I think I was
twenty three years old. I'd run different events businesses during studying and once I
got all that out of the way, I grew up in Manchester and for
people that don't know, Manchester is probably the second city in the UK,
but it's a big fight city. It's somewhere where I would say for most
people the sport of popularity go football and then boxing. And boxing is a
sport usually that does really well in the cities and always produces great fighters,
but particularly in Manchester growing up, you know, my heroes were Ricky Hatton
and Ami Kahn who were from down the road, and a lot of my
friends were fighters, and so I used to go to local shows. I
used to see what the sport was like then and the challenges that it had
for the fighters. For the broadcasters and the and for the sponsors as well.
And it was always came to me as I loved the sport. I
loved the fighters. I loved almost what they have to go through. And
a lot of people don't see the fighters that go through the most, which
is the ones where they don't know if another opportunity is coming. It's not
a sport that's predictable or meritocratic or easy, too easy to understand for many
people, and that was what inspired me. And then it was, well,
why is this sport viewed as intimidating sometimes or definitely at the time when
I was growing up very very masculine and sort of always shrouded in sort of
in a in a cloud of murkiness at times. And that was the same
in the US for a long time as well. And so I was just
inspired by the fighters and the sport and the opportunity, particularly by the broadcasting
world changing. And because I ran events from an early stage and I was
hope helping out on local shows, you know, small shows, whether it
was matchmaking or helping out in the press conferences or international broadcasting, and so
I really sort of understood the sport at the grassroots level and really had to
work my way up and understand how it worked on that level, and that
prepared me and provided me in good stead. And I think, to be
honest, it was probably my age and the fact that I didn't need a
short term win and I was willing to sort of pursue my dream, so
to speak, without the pressure of the responsibilities that you get when you're older.
I mean, a twenty three year old, twenty four year old guy
trying to get his license and trying to make his way in the boxing world
can seem extremely naive, but I that's true. And so it wasn't the
obvious choice. It wasn't a choice that my parents really understood. It's not
there rank. There isn't really a career to be in boxing, you know,
Okay, there's one or two promoters that have run the sport for thirty
forty to fifty years, So what was going to change? And so yeah,
there was a level of naivety, but also enthusiasm and work ethic and
understanding that went into the early years. And I think, yeah, as
I say, I think because I was able to stick at it and I
didn't have the responsibilities, and I really worked from the from the ground up
so to speak. It allowed me to i think undersport understand the sport and
the business for boxing as well and understand it from that side, which maybe
the first few years was was a learning process and that allowed me to probably
break into the sport so to speak where others haven't and obviously was helped out
by the competition amongst broadcasters the changing so media landscape as well. So let's
talk about that just a little bit, so to give people an idea here,
your boxing events are exclusive in the UK on Sky Sports, which has
been a behemoth for boxing for decades in the UK. So a few year,
a couple of years ago a Matchroom Boxing with Eddie Hearn and their group,
their UK exclusivity came to an end and they decided to move their events
to Dizone. Now they were already on to Zone in the United States,
but they were still on Sky and in the UK they went to the Zone
and that left an opening for Sky to find another main provider for UK based
events that became Boxer. You guys got that exclusivity, a tremendous opportunity obviously
for that platform for you to help build your stable. How big of a
moment for your company was that now you'd a had some smaller events on there,
but in terms of your main cards becoming like the key promoter for the
events on Sky How big of a moment was that for you and your company?
Yeah, it was. It was a crazy moment. It was a
culmination of a lot of work. But you know, we'd gone from TV
I mean, we had to start with a tournament. We couldn't really afford
the sign fighters, and we went from five Spike to ITV four to bet
Sport and just built our craft and infrastructure. And then for us, we
knew there was going to be a departure at Sky Sports, and we were
offered other TV networks you know, on the way up that didn't quite fit
or weren't quite right or locked us into something, and we believed in ourselves
and knew that things would change. And so for us, it was at
the end of a long process and one that probably was surprising to many,
but because we'd been working on it for so long, we knew it was
coming. But obviously once you once you get a deal like that, it
really is the culmination of many years work and then you really are in the
in the big time. You know, every promoter, I mean, any
promoter. I mean maybe it's a bit different now with the with the introduction
of Saudi Arabia, but every big promoter needs a big network. You know,
you can't really be a promoter without a network, and so at least
not at the highest level. That's true. That's true. Yeah, yeah,
And that's what I mean, And that's no disrespect. We have promoted
many small hole shows and have so much respect for the promoters that do it,
and this is such an important part of the ecosystem and for developing fights,
to really put on the biggest fights and the biggest events, you've got
to have a good TV network and we were and the Sky was definitely the
one for us. So in the UK, I don't think anybody would argue
with this. There's three top level, upper tier promoters. And again,
like you said, no disrespect to the guys and gals that promote some of
the smaller shows. But it is in fact Boxer on Sky. You have,
like I mentioned, Matchroom Boxing on his own and of course you've got
Frank Warren and his Queensberry Promotions on what is now TNT Sports what is it
like to compete with those guys for talent, for attention on your events,
for ticket sales, for dates, for you name it events. I mean,
they've been around a long time, They've obviously promoted at the highest level.
They've got more experiencing you. They're older than you, you know,
Frank being around for many many years. Eddie of course is much younger than
Frank, and you're much younger than Eddie. But you're like the three big
guys over there in terms of the promotion. What's it like to go head
to head in some sense with those two guys. Oh, it's look,
I'm competing against guys that, as you said, have been at the top
for a very very long time, so we see. It's incredibly challenging but
incredibly rewarding. You know, these are guys that have been putting on all
the fights that I used to go to. Even as a child. I
remember being in the in the top row of the Manchester Arena going to Eddie
Hearn events, going to Frank Warren events. So to be competing with them,
I don't like to say that, because I think all promoters are there
to champion the sport and work with the sport, and we see promoters work
more together with each other more than ever before. But it is a yeah,
it's an amazing experience and it's one that takes a lot of getting used
to because, as you say, you have to have your wits about you.
You have to be incredibly sharp, incredibly on your game, because you
are as you know, you are responsible for promoting boxing at the highest level
in and around people that have been doing it for decades, whose families have
been doing it for decades, and almost institutions in the sport. That's what
it is really. You know, you look at the US and you look
at the UK, and even in the US it's been Al Hayman and Bob
Aroon. I know you've got Oscar as well and plenty of other promoters,
but you know, these are store warks, and these are guys that have
been around decades and decades, and that's usually the way. It's a closed
shop, and so to break in its difficult to the start in the sense
really no one wants you around, you know, and they help what property.
They don't want you to exist. Over time, yeah, you know,
a bit more respects as you go, but ultimately you have to look
after yourself and and but yeah, you can learn a lot from from them.
I think a lot is made as to as to competing with them,
But I have to say, you know, these guys, whether I agree
with them not or everything. No one's going to agree on everything, but
that work ethic and commitment to the sport can't be denied. And that's why
these guys, whether it's Hayman, Bob, Frank Eddie, have been doing
it for so long. Well. One of that, I think critical aspects
of the potential success for boxer is the fact that you mentioned having a broadcast
partner. Obviously you have a wonderful partner in sky uh in the UK,
but it's a big world out there, and one of the biggest markets,
if not the biggest, is the United States of America. And you know,
before we got onto this podcast start talking about stuff you and I would
talk about, Hey, Ben, when are you going to have some of
your events be more available in the United States? Because I thought you're putting
on some good fights and some good shows. And you know, I'm a
diehard boxing fan and junkie if you will, and I know i'd like to
see it legally and nice, nice you know format good stream or good broadcast,
so you know, not a not a poor quality broadcast. Well,
you now have a deal with the Peacock streaming service, which is no joke
in the United States, and if you follow what goes on here, they
just recently had a a NFL playoff game, you know, for football,
which has always been on free to over the air or at least basic cable,
and people were freaking out because they had to spend the five ninety nine
to buy a monthly subscription to Peacock, which has all kinds of stuff on
its sports entertainment et cetera. But now it is the home also, I
mean not as big maybe as the National Football League, but certainly for boxing
fans. You're now it's now the home for boxer events here in the United
States. So can you tell me a little bit about after having just kind
of sporadic coverage of your events, like a pay per view here and there
on the Fight app or occasionally a deal where your event was put on ESPN
Plus, now you have a place to call home where if I want to
watch boxer events, I can go to Peacock. I mean, how is
that? How do you think that's going to help UH boxer and and the
and the attention. Let's say you get here in America for your events.
As you go along and growing any business, you're going to meet challenges.
I remember everyone thought, well, a lot of people thought when we got
scouted, well, you know, you know, you've you've made it.
But at every stage, it's can you sign fights? Is? Can you
sign Olympians? Can you put on pay per view events? Can you put
on big events? Can you put on a schedule? Can you build a
roster? Can you do something in women's boxing. There's all these question marks
as a promoter that I guess, especially as a young promoter, I'm not
going to have I'm gonna have to answer for a long time to come.
And I think one of the big things for us was bossing is a global
sport, the opportunities, particularly at the highest level. It's an international sport
and that involves international opponents. And it was difficult because the talent that we're
developing in the shows that we're putting on in the UK, it's grown to
well, it's grown in a massive way. It's grown at a rate that
many people have been surprised to but Ultimately you have to have strong partners in
the right territories and we have talent in our roster now that I think had
the potential to be global superstars. So not having a US outlet, not
having a US vision for the business, not being able to mark a strategy
to be able hopefully to put on shows there one day as well, was
becoming increasingly difficult. It's very hard, as I say, at the top
level, to operate as an island. I think that was one of the
attractions of why Eddie went to the own because he could put on international fights
everywhere and anywhere. And I think as a promoter you need outlets and as
you said, you need to have strong networks so to be able to which
was a challenge. To be able to convince NBC peek Up to come into
the sport after they've been not been in the sport for so many years and
potentially been scarred by this war took took a while, took a lot of
convincing, took to little help in terms of being able to prove ourselves on
the Sky platform first. And yes it's culminated in the deal which will take
all our UK shows first, which gives us the opportunity to start looking at
a US roster. It gives us the opportunity to start monitoring how things work
over there and eventually bring shows over. So yeah, a huge moment.
So that was my that was my question. Like, so it's part of
the It's it's great that you know, the average fight fan who's a diehard
can certainly tune in to Peacock and watch at a reasonable hour here in the
United States and check out your shows. But the next question is do you
have the desire or the plans to come and and bring boxer events to the
United States like Mattrim has done, you know, since they've hooked up with
his own and put on boxer cards here somewhere at venues in the United States
with American fighters, perhaps that you've signed. Yeah, no, we definitely
do. I mean I've had to turn away a Marria Con fighters in the
past. I've had to turn away fights that were Transatlantic fights because the US
outlet wasn't there. So that's the plan. We want to integrate with Peacock.
We want to understand their platform better. They have the Premier League and
the and the and Wrestling as well, which are huge things over here in
the UK. So for anyone out in the UK, I think out in
the US from the UK, they're going to be watching on Peacock as well.
But it gives us a platform that we know really works. What they've
done with the Premier League, what they've done with WWE over there, and
obviously the linear channels and the major sports they have over there, gives us
a real opportunity. And so in the short term, yes, we want
to put on successful shows in the UK, we want to broadcast them successfully
in the US. We want to build out our team first, and that
was how I built in the UK. It was incremental. I think you
see a lot of people coming into the sport spending loads of money hoping that
they're going to completely do something or takeover and then and then they leave.
And for me, taking things incrementally, working well with your partner and finding
ways to grow naturally is the best way. And that was that I think
Peacock brought into as well. They don't want to jump head first. They
want to they want to build a property on their platform and look at ways
to do boxing differently and look at ways to make it work for that platform.
So it's incredibly exciting. Do you think that that the part of the
part of the way that you were able to work it out with them is
because corporately it made sense. You look, I mean people know that Sky
is owned by Comcast, and here in the United States, NBC and Peacock
are owned by Comcasts. So in one sense there is they're already sort of
all in the family. Did that help sort of grease the wheels for the
deal? It made it there was an easy reference point, you know.
I think we've done a good job for Sky. Sky understood how challenging boxing
was going to be. They'd invested in a partnership for over ten years and
all their fighters and all their money and all their investment, and then overnight
is gone. You're talking about matchroom packing up and going to the zone,
right, Yeah, it's gone, and Overnight is gone. And there they're
sat there thinking, you know, probably thinking do we stay in boxing?
You know, these promoters are extremely established. We don't have any fighters,
and so they know how challenging that's been for us, and they can see
that we've been we're building slowly and surely, and we're building an unbelievable stable
over in the in the UK, and so I think that gave them confidence
to make the record recommendation that we were knocking on the door for a long
time. And hopefully it will benefit Sky because it means that over time we
can put on the biggest fights, the biggest trans atlantic fights that can sit
above across both platforms. All right, well, let's talk about some of
those events. We're talking about your first Peacock card, at least the one
that you know it will air on Sky obviously in the UK. But the
first card that you have that will air on Peacock in twenty twenty four,
what I think is a really good card. I mean, it was delayed
because of an injury, but it's now back on for February third. It
will take place in London. It's a very intriguing WBA light heavyweight elimination fight
main event, Joshua Bowatzi, the Olympian against his good pal and also a
top ranked light heavyweight Dan Aziz, that has I think a potential to be
a really interesting fight, certainly has big stakes. The winner, I guess
becomes the mandatory for Dmitri Biebel, who of course has been in the news
because of the prospect and the likelihood of the undisputed fight between him and Arthur
Betterer Biev coming later this year in Saudi Arabia, and we'll just run through
that card. Also, I want to hear your tyke on the whole show.
The other fight, the co feature, is also I think an excellent
fight. Also Adam Azim who's one of my favorite young prospects. He's going
to defend for the first time the European Junior welterweight title against Enoch Pulsen,
a fight where when Adam won his last fight, Pulson was there ringside and
got in the ring. That was also on Peacock a couple of months ago
and they were doing their kickoff of the promotion thing. You have also probably
one of the like I mentioned earlier, one of the best up and coming
female boxers in the world, Carolyn Dubois, a lightweight, the younger sister
of the heavyweight contender Daniel Dubois. Just give me your thoughts if you could
on that main event that you have that that's been postponed, but now thankfully
he's back on. Yeah, it was. It was the first show that
was going to be on NBC. That's right, that's right, yep.
With five days ago, Danaze's has to pull out injured, you know,
injured. It made the huge noise or a stink, I guess. Over
in the UK, it was a it was a difficult moment to be honest,
because it was a fight that really captured the imagination of the British public.
It's a it's a huge London fight, you know, the both from
London, the both them in the city, the both I'm beaten. They
both really really well thought of, the both extremely talented. So to get
them at number one and number two in the WPA, to get them in
the ring, to get them to both accept the fight against each other,
even though they know each other so well. The storylines, the history between
them, it culminates, especially over in the UK, for UK British culture.
It's a it's a huge fight, and it's a fight that has world
title as you say, connotations, and so it really has everything. I'm
glad that Dan managed to get himself back on track. You know, we
did consider a different fight for for Joshua Bawatzy if that wasn't the case.
But Dan is now fully fit and I'm glad for him that he gets his
opportunity. I'm glad for Bawatzi that he gets his career defining fight, really
because the criticism with Josh he's not fought enough, he's not been tested enough.
He was He's ticked as one of the most talented fighters in the UK
by by some way, but they want to see him in real fights and
this is a real fight. So delighted for both of them, delighted for
the fans that were on. It's a huge night in London. You mentioned
Adam Azim, who is well, let's let's before we get to let's just
on Adam because you know, because we talked about it. I just I
have consider myself a fan of his. I've been watching him since he turned.
He had his professional debut on a card that was actually on ESPN Plus
is where I saw him for the first time. And you know, like,
like you mentioned, he's the COO feature of this show with Bowatzi Disease.
But back to Bowatzi Disease, before we get to a eam, do
you think there's a real chance at the winner of Bowatzi Disease, you know,
in the near future will actually get a chance to fight perhaps the winner
of Bevo and Better Be actually takes place. Look, there's one of the
big British fights in the UK that's talked about and it's always been Buwatzi Yard.
Yeah, that's a big fight over there. Danz has got somethee to
say about that. Of course, you know WBA given as assurance that it
will be ordered as a mandatory. The winner will be hopefully after the unification,
let's see who wins out of better against BiVO. But I believe the
winner will fight through a world tide. So but I know that Anthony Yard
is also looking at the winner. So there's a lot on the line and
I don't want to pre add. You know, I guess the slight favorite
over in the UK because of his Olympic pedigree is Joshua Bowatsu because of how
much he's achieved. But Danazi's is the active fighter. He's the one that
has come from nowhere, the one that has become a real fan favorite really
in the UK, one of the most popular fighters over here that has had
a career where he's gone through every single domestic title that you can win and
really worked his way up and so in terms of form, in terms of
activity, Danazi's is the one on the rise and the one hoping to take
down the big name, the Olympian, the guy that people have such high
hopes for. So it really is a fifty to fifty five for me.
But yeah, world titles, whether it's the winner of Bivol Better B or
whether it's Anthony Yard, which is which could be a huge pay per view
event in the UK. That's what's on the line, all right. I
don't disagree with anything you just said about that, but I actually like this
matchup quite a bit. Now let's get to the co feature, which is
Azem and Pulson adam Azeem. I believe that star power. He's got swagger,
he's got punching power, he's got a good personality. He seems like
he's drawn a crowd at a young age in an early part of his career,
already has been in a main event that drew nicely on one of your
shows. He won the European title pretty impressively in his last fight. He's
only what twenty one years old if I'm not mistaken, and really just seems
like the upward trajectory for his career is almost unlimited. He also has a
you know, the sky folks on my understanding has just absolutely love him also.
And now he's easily his biggest fight to defend the title against Pulson,
who's a good fighter on that level. I know you have a lot invested
in terms of time and energy and emotion into Adam Azim's career already. Yeah.
I mean the fastest ever British fight is to reach a European title.
Did that in ten fights at twenty one years old, So he's moving an
incredible pace. He's still a young boy. His power is phenomenal, his
speed is incredible to watch. But he's a very very hard working individual that
wants to win world championsships in record time. So when you look at the
future pay per uw stars in this country, and I talk about UK in
that sense because you know, we've seen Ami can't retire recently, we've seen
Kilbrook retire, We've seen we're seeing Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury getting to the
final stages of their career. British boxing needs superstars and it needs future stars
and Adam Museum is certainly well on his way and he'll fight he not Paulson,
which is definitely his biggest test to date, and I think he will
be a delight for the US audience. I think we're going to see him
over in the US. He wants to emulate, you know, what Amic
Khn did and go beyond amic in terms of titles, in terms of achievements.
So he's someone that's we have huge hopeful and he's going to be fired
for world titles probably within the next twelve to eighteen months. So we're trying
to keep his feet on the ground, which isn't difficult given what an incredible
athlete hears and person hears. But him and Caroline Dubois, who will have
to mention, Yeah, that's the next one I wanted to ask you about
because she's also on this card. She's also on the top. Definitely the
most exciting female talent coming through in the world. I mean again, phenomenal,
both in the same gym with Shane McGuigan as well. She's the power
as well. You don't see it a lot in women's boxing, but she's
been knocking out girls left, right and censor and again twenty I think she
turned twenty three yesterday. Still a baby. You know, when you look
at women's boxing and you look at Katie Taylor and Tasha Jonas, who will
have thought by the time this goes out, and Savannah Marshall, a lot
of them were turning over, if not in their thirties, just turning thirty.
This is someone now and it shows the development of women's boxing that is
turning over at twenty one twenty two, knocking people out and in Britain,
she definitely is the future face of a female boxing and I believe the world
so to have those two on the same card, I will also you know,
being announced. Ben Whittaker will be now beyond that card. Who is
the Olympic silver medalist that people might remember throwing his silver medal down in the
in the Olympics because of how much you know, achieving gold meant to him.
He is the he is the flashy guy. He is the star in
the UK that is, without doubt pay per view material. He's the guy
that has created so much talking point in the UK around his career it's almost
out of control. It's uh, it's he's definitely the future star over here
is let me ask you. I want to ask you something about that.
So I've been watching then I saw him in the Olympics. I've watched him
on some of your events that you've had, and obviously the guy's got talent.
He's got tremendous speed. That's the first thing that jumps out to me
anyway. And I've seen the massive hype. Tell me if you think I'm
wrong about this. I feel like at this stage for him, because he
only has a handful, it's time to maybe tone down the crazy flamboyance and
the NonStop, bizarre, crazy amounts of hype and get in the ring and
get three four fights on your belt in short order, and and and take
care of your foundation as a professional boxer before you get into the lunaticness of
the crazy hype that goes behind it. Is that? Is that me just
being a grumpy old man or what? Look? I've known that a been
a while now, and that is him. I know it's hard to believe,
but he is a he's a maverick, he's a all the stars And
that's always what I think. And sometimes it'll do things and now I'll look
at his dad and we'll be sat ringside and we'll we'll look at each other
because we know it's almost crossing the line. All the great to have a
crazy side to them and have a side that you don't quite understand, but
you want to. You want to see him develop the boxing part of it
that you can always get hyped up and and and bring. You know,
the flamboyants for sure. I mean we've seen it with lots of fighters.
I mean I was a huge Prince Nasima medfan. But before he became the
outlandist Prince, he made his foundation as a boxer. No, first of
all, he had a fantastic amateur career. Oh sure. One question is
toughness, especially in that way division he's gone. He's gone around all of
Europe, Peace and Europe, Russiazbekistan, fought the very best and extremely extremely
well thought of. But he likes to fight like that. He enjoys to
fight like that. He feels like it gives him an advantage against his opponent
who doesn't know what's coming or going. And to be honest, I let
him do what he wants to do. I don't want to change. Ben
Whittik is going to be a star that everyone in the in the world knows,
in the sporting world will know in a few years time. And yes,
he's gonna have fans that, well, he's gonna have people that don't
like him, He's gonna have people that like him. That's the type of
two years. But for me, what will shine through over time is an
incredible fighter, one that's extremely resilient, one that works extremely hard. Are
there going to be moments in his career where he's going to come under a
lot of scrutiny. I'm absolutely sure of it. There will be people that
will come to a Ben Whittaker fight, or perhaps by a Ben Whittaker pay
per view if it gets to that point, that will do sort of see
him lose. Would you agree with that? Sorry, monsir? Like like
Floyd Mayweather used to say, I don't care if you're rooting for me to
win or lose, just buy the pay per view. Yeah, And I
think you know, we've helped promoter Wasson and boxing Chris Huby Junior and he's
a huge star over here and and a lot of that is built on that.
I mean, will that be the same with Ben Whitaker? Maybe even
more so. I think he's going to have a fan base. I think
he's got a huge fan base in the Midlands, which is a place that's
producing a lot of stars in the UK at the moment, so I do
think he's going to be a guy that sells out arenas. But of course,
you know, he's that flashy, he's that ridiculous in his antics.
He's very up in the head. I think a lot of people over time
are going to want to him. But naturally, with any star performs differently,
or is outspoken or does something we've not seen before, he is going
to come under criticism as well. All right, there's one more topic I
want to ask you about, and that is you're involvement in the cruiserweight division
and you are the promoter, like I mentioned at the top of this broadcast
here that you are the promoter of the WBO cruiserweight champion Chris bill and Smith,
who was a very fun fighter, exciting fighter to watch. You know,
seems like a great guy. I've never had a chance to talk Tom
or meet him, but seems very personal, makes good fights, a big
draw in his home region, and I wanted to know. You know,
he seems like he's got some things that are in store, whether it's the
mandatory against Richard Ria Kopore, who you also promote. I've heard there's a
possibility of maybe having a rematch with Lawrence o'coley, who he took the title
off of in a in a good performance from him. What can you tell
me about what's going on with Chris Billen Smith? As you said, fantastic
guy, almost a fairy tale story. We picked him up eighteen months ago.
He was arguably and maybe he was at European level. He was coming
off two fights against Tommy McCarthy and went into a into an absolute war against
Isaac Chamberlain, one of the fights of the year last year, which was
which was amazing. But then he just went on this run where he's become.
People may not know ever in the US there's a town called bomb.
Yes, they're now in the league and the fans support that we have seen
developed for him over the past eighteen months has been like nothing I've ever seen
it. Well, you put the Accoli Fighter Stadium there, Oh, it
was ridiculous. I mean I mentioned Ricky Hatton at the start of the at
the start of it, and that was built because of his connection with Manchester
City and he had a long he had a long build up and he had
like twenty twenty five fights and he took him a long time and that's when
he started to sell out stadiums. But Chrispiner Smith in the past eighteen months
has gone from Isaac Chamberlain to winning a world title against Lawrence Coley, as
you said, in his hometown football stadium sold out, and he's just been
in an incredible journey. It has been one with delighted to have delivered for
him and given him that opportunity. But did I think it would happen?
Did I think he would go on this run. He's a type of fighter
that never ever makes it easy for himself or was always in a fight where
he's getting here. He's got incredible courage and he is incredibly talented, but
he definitely gets himself in a fight and that's the only way he knows to
fight. And we saw that against Mittaus Masternaki before in December, and he
was actually down on the scorecards by some distance, many things, and he
managed to get through and master nakurt his and broke his rib and had to
stay in the corner. But it's it's just been a it's been a it's
been like a fairy tale that just hasn't stopped for him. So far and
you get these stories sometimes in British boxing, and I think it's the only
place where you do where you have these hometown heroes that aren't necessarily the most
talented fighters, but with their support and with their commitment and with everything that
they put in, it becomes a horrible place to go and fight against them.
And he's ended up a world champion in the stadium and he's just been
incredible and he gets the most out of his ability. He only has the
one loss. I mean, BILLM. Smith is what nineteen wins with one
loss and thirteen knockouts. His one loss was not in a championship fight,
but he lost a ten round split decision in twenty nineteen to another one of
the top cruiserweight contenders, Richard Ricop, who you also promote, who was
undefeated, And if I'm not mistaken, that is going to be the mandatory
assignment for Billin Smith at some point. Murk Porey is seventeen and zero,
a good puncher, thirteen knockouts. Are we going to see that fight this
year? Yeah, that's the next fight. That's the fight that's next for
both of them. It's the fight that Richard deserves as well, he's another
guy that we've promoted for a while and his development has been incredible for me.
I think outside Giopatai is probably the most fit man in the division,
just because his punching power is and the way he's developed now where he just
sort of poises in fights and waits for his moment and it's just one punch
and you're out. And he's done it so consistently now in his past few
fights, he's he's worked himself to the mandatory of position in two governing bodies.
He's he's taking this route and so we're going to see the rematch.
The question is when are we going to see the rematch, and we are
were speaking to Chris Billers Smith team the other over the weekend. We were
hoping to make it as soon as possible. I think he has got a
couple of things that he's recovering from from from December. Nothing serious, but
it's it's delaying the fight ever so slightly. We're going to see it definitely
in the in the first half of the year, and it's a it's a
huge fight in Britain because it's a rematch, they've got history, it's for
the world tits or it's something that Chris is, it's something that Richard believes
he deserves. It's a it's a special fight for this country, and it's
and it's and it's an intriguing battle, especially with with a punch power.
With the punch power of Richards is something that could be pretty spectacular and we're
good to see it in the United States and PEPA when it happens. I'm
happy about that. Ben, Thank you, Thank you so much for doing
this, and I really appreciate it. Lader. We give the listeners a
chance to hear about what's going on behind the scenes with Batterer, and you
know, all your events and how you got into this is because you know,
you guys are players, especially now having that you know United States,
the old things. They so thank you so much for doing this. Thank
you, and I appreciate it. My pleasure than you everybody that is Bench
Loon a big boss man at Boxer