Ben Shalom challenges Eddie Hearn to sit-down after being grilled on Adam Azim vs Dalton Smith

Ben Shalom challenged Eddie Hearn to sit down with him to talk business after revealing they had never spoken before.

The BOXXER chief has been criticized for advising his fighters to pull out of some ordered fights against members of Hearn’s Matchroom stable.

Last year, BOXXER’s Frazer Clarke was pulled from a British heavyweight title clash against Fabio Wardley, formerly of Matchroom.

At the time, Shalom said Clarke “hadn’t done enough rounds” in his professional career to justify jumping straight into a 12-rounder – and therefore booked his client in a pair of 10-round fights against Mariusz Wach and Dave Allen before. taking the Wardley fight last weekend.

Most recently, BOXXER’s Adam Azim was ordered to defend his European welterweight title against promising Matchroom prospect Dalton Smith, only for Azim to relinquish his belt and pursue a fight with Harlem Eubank instead .

Shalom was grilled by the decision to let Azim fight Eubank rather than Smith as well as his strained relationship with Hearn when he joined Jim White and Darragh MacAnthony on talkSPORT on Thursday afternoon.

After admitting he had never spoken to Hearn before, Shalom challenged his promotional rival to meet him.

“I challenge them, we would love to all sit at the table,” he said. “It never had to do with Matchroom or the platform.

“Fabio Wardley vs. Frazer Clarke had to do with Clarke having six fights and only fighting one six rounder. Nothing to do with Matchroom.”

Earlier this week, Hearn accused Shalom of “dodge fights” with Matchroom boxers following the collapse of Azim vs Smith.

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When White and MacAnthony addressed the accusations, Shalom insisted he made decisions to improve his fighter’s career rather than to prevent cross-promotion fights from taking place on rival platforms.

Shalom added: “Look at the Frazer Clarke and Fabio Wardley situation, the amount of heartbreak, the amount of attention, the amount of scrutiny that this decision has received.

“And then we sat here after a night like Sunday and it obviously speaks for itself. My duty is to my fighters.

“Anyone in boxing, any ex-boxer knew it was a good decision when it happened.

“They didn’t have to wait until Sunday night to think, ‘Oh my God, that was a grueling fight, going 12 rounds.’

“Thank God Frazer Clarke had had a bit more experience because otherwise he might not have known where he was fitness-wise.

“Similarly, this has to be the right time for Adam Azim and when he weighs up the options on the table, he has a potential fight against Eubank.

“We need to create a superstar and we have a decision to make.

“Do we pick a Eubank or do we pick Dalton Smith? Make no mistake, both are tough fights, Dalton Smith is a tougher fight.

“I think at this stage of his career it would be a bad decision.

“I’m not saying he wouldn’t win at the moment, but in three or four fights, like we saw with Clarke and Wardley, both fighters are making a huge amount of money on top of that and it’s a fight a lot most important.

“Not only was Clarke grateful for what happened on Sunday night, but so was Wardley…

“Fighting a Eubank will take Azim to superstar level.

“Don’t look down on the profile and fight a very hard fight very early in your career…

“Jordan Thompson was thrown in against Jai Opetaia, what did that do for his career? He hadn’t even fought at English level.

“Smith v Azim will be one of the biggest fights in British boxing, with a sold-out arena and possibly a PPV – they will earn five or six times what they would if that happened next.

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