Idiotic and inexcusable remarks from an imbecile. That’s how I would describe Ben Shalom’s attempt to come up with an excuse for Frazer Clarke’s defeat.
I’m talking about his stupid comments about the gloves that Fabio Wardley was wearing. Shalom has said he is leading an investigation into the Fly gloves that Wardley wore in his one-round demolition of Clarke.
Who does he think he is? Inspector Clouseau? More like clueless. Shalom is claiming a doctor told him there’s no way a glove should be able to do that level of damage after Clarke suffered a broken cheekbone?
What a load of nonsense and he’s trying to devalue Wardley’s superb win. But let’s look at the facts here.
We will go back to August when a letter was sent to Boxxer regarding the gloves and it was received and approved by John Wischhusen, who works for Shalom, and he commended the letter.
Now to the rules meeting after the weigh-in when the gloves are checked over. Shalom was not present at this.
Clarke’s trainer Angel Fernandez said he wasn’t happy with the Fly gloves but the British Boxing Board of Control told him they were approved and he said nothing further.
(Image: Getty Images)
The Fly brand by the way has been worn by Shalom’s boxers before. Adam Azim has worn them and will probably have them on again when he fights tonight.
The show in Saudi was sanctioned by the BBBofC, it was a Riyadh Season event and it is SELA in association with Queesberry, as we are the licensed promoters of the show.
We are responsible for making sure that everything is done correctly. That is what we did. Shalom is a promoter who had fighters on the show. He was not a promoter of the show.
All he’s done is make Clarke look bad. The boxer himself handled it all superbly and was very respectful to Wardley for his win.
(Image: Richard Pelham)
It wasn’t a great night for Boxxer with Ben Whittaker going over the top rope with Liam Cameron and not being able to continue. Whittaker is lucky in a way because he was on his way to losing. He has to take the rematch to get any credibility back.
As for Chris Eubank Jr, he didn’t look too good despite getting Kamil Szeremeta over in the first and laboured through until the seventh.
Shalom spent the week more concerned about where he was standing in pictures than his fighters.
What a win for Wardley, though. The main event was also brilliant. I thought Dmitry Bivol won it but Artur Beterbiev is special. I hope we get the rematch.