Ben Shalom has responded to Martin Bakole’s public claims that Shalom is trying to ruin his career as Guido Vianello fight falls through.
In a division dominated by Frank Warren and Queensberry Promotions, Ben Shalom has three heavyweights fighting at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this Saturday.
Frazer Clarke (9-2-1, 7ko’s) faces Australian Justis Huni (12-1, 7ko’s) in a matchup where styles are likely to gel into a brilliant fight.
As well as this, Jeamie TKV (9-2, 5ko’s) defends his British title against Richard Riakpohre (19-1, 15ko’s).
It’s Ben Shalom’s heavyweight, or so we thought, Martin Bakole (21-2, 16ko’s) that is making the most noise however.
Just a number of weeks ago Martin Bakole vs Guido Vianello was announced to take place on the Usyk-Verhoeven Ring Magazine event in Egypt, but the fight has subsequently been cancelled.
The man from the Democratic Republic of Congo took so social media earlier this week to state:
“I am ready to fight anytime but one man is trying to ruin my career: Ben Shalom.
“I don’t understand why he is doing it”
“He has been earning money from me for years and years and has kept me tied up in a contract”.
“He is not my promoter. I am ready to fight but I will not pay that man another cent”.
Ben Shalom has not held back in his response talking to The Stomping Ground.
Shalom stated: “We got wind of this last week, I got on a call with SELA because we made the fight in Egypt”.
“We let Martin take his full purse directly and said we will sort our problems out in the background”.
“He can’t be fit, and the advisors might be pulling a fast one because we gave him no excuse not to take it”.
“The advice he has recieved to do that is so bad, it’s juts kamikaze, he’s being advised not to speak to his own promoter”.
“He’s in trouble now, we signed Martin when no one wanted to sign him, a Congolese fighter that couldn’t sell a ticket”.
“We’ve given him 7 figure pay days consistently, we put Martin Bakole forward for the big nights every time”.
“I was p*ssed off, I can’t keep doing this, I’ve had a lot of comments [from SELA]
“He’s turned down Filip Hrgovic [750k], Moses Itauma [1.5m], Hughie Fury, Justis Huni and now Guido Vianello”.
Ben Shalom is insistent that Bakole is still under contract with BOXXER.
Whether an agreement can be made between the parties for Bakole to fight in the near future is yet to be seen.
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