Hearn bullying Shalom

Nope.

It's a dog eat dog world in that game.

 

It's a pantomime which they all ultimately benefit from. You may just as well feel sorry for Dick Whittington .

 

poor lil Ben, he was parachuted into a position beyond his ability by a desperate Sky Sports hunting for a puppet Baby Hearn, just give him five more years to sign the most boring fighters in the country and he’ll come good

 

It’s been a disaster for Sky Sports, I’ve never seen a more boring stable of fighters. Lawrence Okolie, Joshua Buatsi, Hughie Fury, the list goes on.

Ben Shalom is out of his depth. However he has the potential to solve the global insomnia crisis. All he needs to do is get Okolie and Hughie Fury in a ring together.

 

Of course. Hearn is a bully. He can be very condescending to what he thinks are "lesser" people than him. He's shown this on the sly many times in interviews.

 

You're absolutely right, but it isn't unique to Hearn / Shalom imho. Arum and co tried to bully Hearn when he got the DAZN deal, Don King etc etc, Frank Warren belittled Shalom during the Joyce-Parker press conference he attended. The newbie - especially one with a big TV contract - will always be unwelcome.

Re the recent shenanigans - and where I think we agree. One thing that's come to my mind since hearing Shalom's interview: Shalom claimed 258 didn't lobby the Board to get the mandatory for Clarke. Hearn and Wardley claim they did. I'm usually loathe to believe Hearn in a he said / she said situation. But Boxxer's late withdrawal from the purse bid can surely only be explained by Hearn's side of events. Sky's story the night before the purse bid was quasi-Soviet in its style.

Hearn has hammed it up (Clarke "in tears" claims Hearn - like he would know) but there seems to be a thread of truth in the claims. I'm sure they enjoyed getting their day in the media, they got widespread attention for a relatively minor and obscure story.

All that said: it isn't impossible that Shalom is telling the truth and that Hearn has fed us all another whopper. Unless we hear from Clarke though, the court of public opinion is already decided.

 

Nope. Ben is beyond being out of his depth. Eddie knows it and Sky need him back.

With how fickle the worlds attention span is, Ben should be doing nothing but signing fighters who bring fireworks. Even if they are the biggest glass cannons on earth. That makes more sense than signing Okolie and his like. Sign an absolute knockout merchant in every division. Scour the world to make it happen. And watch the numbers fly high.

In a nutshell Ben should sign the opposite of what he's signing rn.

 

Hearn is right to call Shalom out on this.
You don’t lobby for a fight which you know will be a 12 rounder. Then pull out of the purse bids claiming your fighter isn’t ready. He wasted a lot of Hearn’s time on preparing the bid and even looking at a venue.

It’s a dog eat dog world and Hearn has taken his fair share of stick, and now is delighting in dealing some of it out to other promoters who claimed to want to work with everyone.

Shalom has handed out two massive contracts to two fighters who couldn’t attract flies to a dung heap. One of those seemingly doesn’t want to fight anyone with a pulse.

It’s not at all bullying. It’s part of the business.

 

If you created a poll on the top 3 most boring British boxers. You would end up with Okolie and Hughie on every list.

To cap it all off he has a LHW who doesn’t want to fight anyone with a pulse.

It’s an absolutely dire stable it really is. You would only sign those 3 if you DKSAB

 

No sympathy for Shalom. He acknowledged purse bids the other week, he also said he'd put a career high offer to Wardley but then in his next breath states he didn't condone purse bids and that Clarke isn't ready for the fight and its not the right fight for him next. Which one is it?

 

I wouldn't be feeling sorry for him. Boxing is in a sorry state globally and domestically - globally more because the top fights aren't being made, and domestically mainly because we've had such a drop off in talent. So few genuine world class British boxers and so few exciting prospects compared to the last 10/15 years when Hearn was coming through.

Not only is he getting an incredible opportunity with Sky, but he'll be getting something of a free pass because of the general lull we are seeing. Which recent fights can we point to and say Shalom should be doing that?

Of course Hearn will be sly, underhand and just generally unpleasant, that's a given, but it's probably not a bad time to start getting used to that kind of thing. It'll probably do him good in the long term.

 

For Shalom it's a case of 'Welcome to the NFL, rookie' - to quote the great Paulie Walnuts

 

To be fair Shalom and Sky needed headliners. Okolie was actually a decent signing considering the circumstances. He is fighting BIllam-Smith at a sold football stadium and will then likely face Riakporhe in a unification clash at the end of the year (although on PPV). Again with Buatsi they can make the Azeez clash and it gives them a talented fighter to headline shows whilst getting their younger fighters out.

They are moving Adam Azim on really well but not Fraser Clarke or Ben Whittaker to be honest so far. Whittaker is being marketed well though. It's not all doom and gloom but Shalom has handled the Clarke situation poorly who will inevitably leave Boxxer at the end of his contract.

 

It is a peculiar set of signings