NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

TALK to Ben Shalom and it’s easy to understand how the youngest promoter in Britain wowed Sky Sports bosses to nab one of the most sought-after jobs in boxing. The buzzwords are all in place. Platform. Accessibility. Numbers. Drivers. Engagement. Audience. Diversification. Pay-per-view. Baddabing. Baddaboom.

Shalom, though, is not quite what you might expect. He’s not an Eddie Hearn clone. He’s not a brash Sam Jones-style marketeer. Softly spoken, humble, and keen to keep himself off social media for the foreseeable future, the 28-year-old is much happier to shine a light than stand in its glare.

Though his vision for the sport is a familiar one, create an appealing product that the masses will embrace, there is more than a just a cursory nod to the fans and fighters who really make the sport tick. If he keeps the fighters and fans happy, and he sees no reason why he can’t do both, then his simple plan will come to fruition. There are promises of investment at amateur level, of main events not starting at daft o’clock, of only well-matched fights being part of the broadcast. None of it is rocket science, all of it heard elsewhere before, but Shalom seems to recognise that if he’s going to make an impression, he has to be more boxing fan than businessman.

“The frustration I have had with Sky Sports is that a lot of the cards have been long, winding and really hard to stay with,” Shalom. “So if you’re sat there with your girlfriend trying to explain why we should be watching it, rather than or something, you need something that you can justify watching. Boxing is supposed to be entertaining. It’s supposed to be exciting. Can we shorten the shows? Can we put more headline fights on the card? Can we freshen up the whole experience?”