EPISODE 38
INSIDE THE ROPES: BUILDING A BOXING EMPIRE FROM SCRATCH
BOXER FOUNDER & CEO, BEN SHALOM
How does a young lad from Manchester become Britain’s youngest ever boxing promoter at just 23 years old?
BOXXER CEO Ben Shalom, was the first promotor to break into the sport since the 1970s - now seven short years later he is the exclusive boxing promoter for Sky Sports in the UK and NBC in America.
From financial struggles and public criticism, in this episode of the Off Script podcast, Ben opens up about the sacrifices, challenges and grit it took to succeed in a brutal industry.
He’s built a roster from scratch, taking some of Britain’s brightest young talents from their debut to the world stage and transformed the careers of many fighters who had stagnated at other promoters.
In this episode Ty & Ben cover:
Ben’s vision to create the BOXXER brand and transform the perception of boxing.
How he built BOXXER into a global force, culminating on major TV deals.
How his childhood drove his strong determination and work ethic.
How Ben took some of Britain’s brightest young talents from their debut to the world stage.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
“I wanted to create a brand that stood for something in the sport, that stood for transparency, that stood for inclusion, that stood for hard work and try to make the sport seem less intimidating”
42:26 - Ben Shalom
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“You’ve come out of nowhere and taken the UK boxing scene by storm - you’re the youngest promotor, you’ve teamed up with Sky Sports - it sounds absolutely ludicrous.” - 3:49 - Ty Temel
“In my 20s everything was sacrificed; rightly or wrongly and nothing else mattered and that can be a lonely place.” - 12:26 - Ben Shalom
“Being around fighters gave me so much energy, because I would always look at them and say, “well it's not as hard as what they're doing. They're getting absolutely battered, they're going into the gym every day, they're not getting paid, they never know when the next fight is coming, yet they're doing it and they cannot do it any less than 100%” - 23:19 - Ben Shalom
“No one had really broken into the sport in decades but because I made a decision in my head, I committed that this was going to be the route, this was what I wanted to do and there was no turning back.” - 24:00 - Ben Shalom
“We had to do it without TV money, which for a big promoter is obviously unheard of.” - 33:47 - Ben Shalom
“There was huge competition amongst broadcasters. And boxing was very, very underdeveloped and had a lot of problems as well within the sport, but couldn't translate into big audiences, and could you know, communicate a great message.” - 41:41 - Ben Shalom
“That’s still the vision today. How can we create the most recognisable brand in boxing? Not promotion of the events, but for gyms, for merchandise, for athletes, for product, something that could in the more globalised world change over time, the perception of boxing. And that was always the motivation, that was always the goal.” Ben Shalom - 43:00
“It's a brutal sport - outside of the ring it is a brutal industry.” - 47:16 - Ben Shalom