There were no fewer than 175 days between Boxxer’s final show on Sky Sports and the first of their new deal with the BBC, which kicked off on Saturday night in Derby.

Jeamie ‘TKV’ Tshikeva beat Frazer Clarke to win the vacant British heavyweight title and usher in a new era for the national broadcaster’s rollercoaster relationship with boxing.

The show at Derby’s Vaillant Live Arena was the first of its kind shown on free-to-air prime time television in Britain for more than two decades and now Ben Shalom, the man at the helm of Boxxer, says it will begin a run of one show per month on the BBC.

When the deal was initially announced in August, following the end of Boxxer’s contract with Sky in June, the length of the deal and specifics on number of shows was not publicly disclosed. Some reports suggested that it may involve just three shows annually and nobody predicted a frequency of 12 per year.

But that is Shalom’s ambitious claim now their delayed showdown between TKV and Clarke finally got the ball rolling. Callum Simpson, who incidentally took centre stage as the curtain came down on the deal between Sky and Boxxer in June, is the next fighter scheduled to fight on the BBC.

The Barnsley man will defend his British, Commonwealth and European super-middleweight titles against Troy Williamson at the First Direct Arena in Leeds on December 20. Then, as Shalom told The Ring last month, Adam Azim will headline on January 31 before the ball keeps rolling throughout 2026.

“We are hoping for a show a month next year.” Shalom told The Ring. “Obviously July and August are traditionally slower months for us so let’s see how the summer goes. But certainly January, February, March etc will continue in the same vein.

“We’ve had to wait a bit of time and we’ve had to get all our ducks in a row and be ready to go but hopefully now this is the start of something special.”

Shalom and Boxxer had got their first major broadcast break via Channel 5, which aired some of the now defunct ‘Ultimate Boxxer’ tournaments. The format was also shown on 5Spike and BT Sport before Boxxer secured a highly coveted exclusive deal with Sky.

So Shalom is well placed to speak on how the machinations of the not-for-profit BBC differ from those of his previous broadcasters. It is why Shalom has also revealed that Boxxer are set to announce a new pay-TV partner before the year is out.

“It’s an interesting question,” he said when asked what has been the hardest thing about dealing with the BBC compared to Sky.

“I think it's difficult because they're a not-for-profit corporation, so that's something that you have to always bear in mind. I think we've had to detail the deal very creatively, which allows us to put on pay-per-view events and allows us to put on the events that require some sort of financial subscription behind them. We've worked really well to put that together.

“We've also had to make sure that everything's BBC compliant so that the way that we're going to present boxing suits the BBC and shows boxing in the best possible light. There's nowhere to hide on the BBC. This is an organisation that is scrutinised probably more than any other. It has been interesting and I'm starting to see the scale of the BBC and the scrutiny of the BBC.

“It's still the biggest platform in the UK by a mile. Understanding all the shows that they have, the digital platforms that they have, the iPlayer, the website, it's enormous. Now we're just trying to integrate the teams to try and make this the most powerful platform for boxing in this country.”

On Saturday night, the chief support, which featured Francesca Hennessy, and the main event were both shown on BBC Two while the undercard was broadcast on BBC iPlayer. However, Shalom revealed to The Ring that up to four hours of December’s show in Leeds could be shown on the linear channel.

He said: “That is what I’m told - the main broadcast could be three or four hours. That means we will look at three or four fights on there.

“Things will change depending on schedules with the BBC because of the amount of what they have on. Things can change between now and then but it will be a longer main broadcast than in Derby.

“iPlayer is also an enormous platform for the fights which will stream from the undercard and it’s certainly bigger than what we’ve had before. We are really just looking to use the full armoury of the BBC network.

“It's a huge privilege to be able to promote on the BBC, a huge privilege to bring boxing back to the national broadcaster for the first time in so long. I’m just delighted that we're here now and the idea is that it can now run like clockwork because of the work that's been put in.”