Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol locked horns last Saturday in a compelling and tightly contested showdown for the undisputed light heavyweight crown.
While it was Artur Beterbiev who ultimately emerged victorious, a large portion of boxing fans have labeled the decision a robbery, favoring Dmitry Bivol’s evasive footwork over his opponent’s formidable aggression.
Still, despite team Bivol filing an official protest against the result, one would assume that Beterbiev will nonetheless keep his championship status.
And yet, while most of the drama seemed to occur on fight night, there were indeed pockets of soap opera-like entertainment scattered around fight week too.
Frank Warren reveals reason behind Ben Shalom confrontation at Chris Eubank Jr face-off
With Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn enjoying a rather cordial relationship for the first time in 15 years, it seems that another British promoter, Ben Shalom, has been somewhat sidelined by the pair.
Shalom, though, had a busy night ahead of him on Saturday, with Ben Whittaker, Chris Eubank Jr and Frazer Clarke all in action-packed dustups.
But it was at the weigh in on the day before when the Boxxer promoter was seemingly confronted by Warren, who was pushed out of the camera shot for Eubank Jr’s face-off with Kamil Szeremeta.
When speaking with BoxNation, the Queensberry Promotions boss said: “All you got from [Shalom] all week was, ‘where am I sitting? Am I on the camera side of the TV?’ Sending contracts through [saying], ‘I must be in the middle of the photograph. I don’t want Eddie Hearn in a photograph with my fighter.’
“Had he done it [again], I would’ve thrown him off the stage. He was just so disrespectful to everybody, everybody had enough of him. Just hard work.
“[Boxxer] were a nightmare… an absolute nightmare to work with.”
A difficult night at the office for Boxxer fighters Ben Whittaker and Frazer Clarke
So now, it would appear that Warren is no closer to building a working relationship with Shalom, who has also been criticized by Hearn for his lack of willingness to make cross-promotional fights.
Nevertheless, Saturday was certainly a challenging night for two members of the Boxxer stable, even with Eubank Jr taking care of business against his opponent.
Further down the card, though, Whittaker was forced to withdraw himself from his fight against Liam Cameron in the fifth-round, after sustaining an injury in a bizarre turn of events.
Clarke, too, suffered an injury in his rematch with Fabio Wardley, and has now been cleared to leave hospital after undergoing a successful surgery.