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Frank Warren has called fellow promoter Ben Shalom ‘disrespectful’ and ‘pathetic’, over alleged politics during the most recent Saudi fight week.
Warren, Shalom and Eddie Hearn were the main promoters in Riyadh for the Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol card, with Shalom a newer entrant into the space.
Warren leads Queensberry, while Hearn heads up Matchroom, and Shalom runs Boxxer. The promotions all have their own broadcast partners – TNT Sports, DAZN and Sky Sports respectively, all of whom have aired the major Saudi events over the last year.
But this new dynamic has not been entirely harmonious, it seems. After footage emerged of Shalom and Warren appearing to argue during a fighter face-off last week, Warren has accused the Boxxer chief of being “disrespectful”.
“All you got from him all week was, ‘Where am I sitting? Am I on the camera side of the TV?’” Warren claimed in an interview with Box Nation. “Sending contracts through: ‘I must be in the middle of the photographs; I don’t want Eddie Hearn in a photograph with my fighter; any interviews with my fighter, I have to be there.’
“So we’ve got to stop people taking panoramic photographs? What is this? It’s about the F’ing boxers, not about who’s going on TV. It’s just pathetic, the whole thing was pathetic.
“I turned around and told him the facts of life. He didn’t do it again, and had he done it, I’d have thrown him off the stage [...] because he was just so disrespectful to everybody.
“And everybody had enough of him. They were a nightmare, an absolute nightmare to work with. I mean, I only heard about this yesterday, because my lot don’t tell me what’s going on. I said: ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
“I was fuming over some of it, and it’s pathetic. It’s about the boxers. But you know what, it’s called karma. We all saw what happened: one of his fighters got beat convincingly, and the other has got to go and prove what he’s all about now when he recovers from his injuries – and do the rematch.”
Warren was referring to Frazer Clarke’s first-round knockout by Fabio Wardley, and Ben Whittaker’s bizarre draw with Liam Cameron. Whittaker was injured as he and Cameron fell over the top rope after five rounds, leading their bout to end as a split draw via technical decision. Whittaker and Clarke are promoted by Shalom, while Warren represents Wardley and Cameron.
When it was put to Warren that Shalom had accused Hearn and the Queensberry boss of ‘making life difficult’ for him, Warren countered: “What is he being blocked from? Having a photograph done? Grow up, act your age.”
