Ben Shalom has continued to sabotage the careers of British fighters without restraint as Isaac Chamberlain becomes the latest victim that is manipulated to pull out of a purse bid, despite not even being directly signed to Shalom’s promotion of Boxxer; thereby becoming the fifth known fighter associated with Shalom to withdraw from a mandated fight by the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC).

To put everything into perspective, purse bids are held after a fight has been ordered by a sanctioning or governing body such as the BBBofC to fight for a significant title, and the two teams representing both fighters fail to reach an agreement. In this case, the BBBofC ordered the holder of their British cruiserweight title, Isaac Chamberlain (16-2, 8 KO’s), and contender Cheavon Clarke (8-0, 6 KO’s) to negotiate last December. As the two parties failed to negotiate an agreement, a purse bid was then ordered by the BBBofC and set to commence on April 10th, only for Chamberlain to pull out from the purse bid an hour before the fight according to Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn―Clarke’s promoter.

“After it was ordered two months ago, today the day had finally come for the Isaac Chamberlain vs. Cheavon Clarke purse bid,” Hearn posted on his Twitter/X account. “The team drove down to Cardiff to bid in what would have been by far the biggest purses of their career. Instead IC’s [Isaac Chamberlain] team chose to vacate just an hour before the bid. Fifth in a row.“

The responses that came from both Isaac Chamberlain and his manager, Mick Henessy, confirmed they were culpable for the decision, having clearly opted to wait to pull out at the last moment while representatives from both Matchroom and the BBBofC were waiting on them to arrive in Cardiff where the purse bid would be held.

“Cry some more. I’m going for bigger things we ain’t dancing to your tune you silver spoon baby.” Chamberlain stated in response to Eddie Hearn’s post.

“Spreading misinformation doesn’t help, Eddie. This has nothing to do with Ben Shalom or Boxxer,” Hennesy responded in turn. “This is totally my decision. It was either give up the British Title or give up the European Title opportunity (as my courtesy call to your office this morning, before we relinquished, explained), and since Isaac Chamberlain hasn’t won the European Title before, we chose this.“

While Mick Hennesy attempted to disassociate Ben Shalom from what occurred, the manager/promoter only made matters worse as he confirmed it had been himself who had been behind Chamberlain’s decision to withdraw from the purse bid late; which boils down to manipulation at best.

As it now appears that Isaac Chamberlain was convinced by his own manager to pull out, Boxxer chairman Ben Shalom still has not avoided being responsible as this makes it the fourth time that a Boxxer fighter pulled out.

The most notorious case of a Boxxer fighter withdrawing from a purse bid or mandated fight was when Frazer Clarke (8-0-1, 6 KO’s) pulled out of a BBBofC purse bid last year that would see him fight Fabio Wardley (17-0-1, 16 KO’s) for his British heavyweight title. In the same year, Richard Riakporhe (17-0, 13 KO’s) also pulled out of the IBF’s purse bid that came off the back of a mandate for him to face then-IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia (24-0, 19 KO’s).

Then there is the case of British super lightweight Adam Azim (11-0, 8 KO’s). Azim had been ordered by the EBU to defend his title against Dalton Smith (16-0, 12 KO’s), who was coming off a win against former multi-world title challenger Jose Zepeda (37-5, 28 KO’s), only for Azim to withdraw from that scheduled purse bid

The obvious similarity of all these cases is obvious; the fighters were all signed or associated with Boxxer, headed by Ben Shalom, and they all withdrew from their scheduled purse bids despite having at least more than a month the time to express their desire to look for other options.

Ben Shalom appears to be at the forefront of all these decisions, given he promotes all fighters, though Isaac Chamberlain’s withdrawal suggests the fighter’s manager had a hand in it. Either way, Shalom can be attributed as a major problem for boxing in the United Kingdom, allegedly managing to manipulate at least three British talents to withdraw from purse bids at the last moment, all while ensuring his own hand in their decision is left only to speculation.

However, Mick Hennesy’s words about having convinced Chamberlain to pull out in order to keep a hold of the EBU (European Boxing Union) title suggests none of the other Boxxer fighters withdrew of their own volition. Ben Shalom is therefore implicated in convincing aforementioned fighters to withdraw from their purse bids, but this cannot be proven as the fighters ultimately made the decision.

The manipulative mastermind behind these decisions will not be handled by any of the sanctioning or governing bodies; despite them having also had to suffer both time and money with at least two months having been wasted in ordering the fight, and organizing the purse bid proceedings―after the fighters’ teams failed to reach a deal.

As is often the case with boxing, though this alleged form of manipulation by Ben Shalom is almost blatant, there is simply no authority in boxing that can prevent these instances from occurring in the future―even though the sanctioning or governing bodies themselves can devise measures to avoid the manipulation of fighters behind the scenes, and late withdrawals from purse bids.

Highly likely, a similar instance will occur in the future as it pertains to Shalom convincing his fighters to pull out, especially with most of these instances having involved opponents who are signed to Boxxer’s rival promotion of Matchroom.

Aside from the fighters that withdraw failing to test themselves against worthy competition all while they will receive appropriate compensation for the efforts, the public will also be deprived of competitive fights that they would likely be more than willing to pay for.

However, with boxing too corrupt and unorganized to settle matters such as these, such as by prompting investigations, there will be no repercussions for Boxxer or Ben Shalom, and fighters will likely continue to hold the interests of their promoters or managers over their own―which is the exact opposite of what both entities have claimed to be in the sport for.

In the meantime, Cheavon Clarke is now up to fight for the vacant BBBofC British cruiserweight title that has been relinquished by Isaac Chamberlain following his decision to pull out of the scheduled purse bid. Clarke will be facing fellow Brit Ellis Zorro (17-1, 7 KO’s) for the now-vacant British cruiserweight title on