MANCHESTER, England — Plans for a second edition of the Queensberry-Matchroom ‘5v5’ event may have been shelved, but that doesn’t mean that British boxing fans should brace themselves for a return to the days when the only cross-promotional battles took place in tit-for-tat YouTube interviews.

If anything, the shared appetite to make the best possible fights seems stronger than ever.

“No reason at all,” Matchroom Boxing CEO, Frank Smith, told The Ring when asked about the ‘5v5’ event not taking place.

“As always, there's lots of discussions around shows, what’s going to happen and what fights make the most sense. It was definitely our ideal plan to do that ‘5v5’ but we're working on other opportunities right now.

“The good thing is that cross-promotional fights are happening. The weekend after next, Justis Huni takes on Fabio Wardley in a brilliant fight. It's all about making good fights and thats something that maybe wasn't happening enough in the past.”

The whole ‘5v5’ concept captured the imagination of British boxing fans who had spent years watching significant domestic fights wither and die due to boxing politics.

Saudi Arabia’s dramatic arrival in the sport thawed icy relations between the various promotional outfits and the idea of having two of the sports powerhouses, Queensberry and Matchroom, pit some of their best fighters against each other broke the ice completely.

Queensberry dominated the event but the popularity of the idea changed the boxing landscape for good.

Plans for a second event may have been put on the backburner but, thankfully, British boxing hasn’t reverted to the dark ages.

Some major cross-promotional fights have already been agreed, but instead of being placed on one big card it looks like they will be given headline slots with the events spread out over the second half of the year.

“One hundred percent, that was always a drive from DAZN as well,” said Smith, who was speaking at the launch press conference for the upcoming welterweight fight between Jack Catterall and Harlem Eubank.

“They want to make the best fights in the sport and if that means cross-promotional fights across their partners, that's what we'll do. We've done it with Golden Boy in the past as well and we'll continue to do it.

“We've always been open to working with promotional partners to make the best fights possible.”

Next weekend’s hastily arranged heavyweight fight between Queensberry’s Wardley and Matchroom’s dangerous Australian Olympian, Huni, is the type of fight that would never have been made at the height of the promotional cold war.

On July 26, Queensberry’s European super featherweight champion, Ryan Garner, fights Matchroom’s British and Commonwealth champion, Reece Bellotti.

A light heavyweight showdown between Queensberry’s Anthony Yarde and Matchroom’s Callum Smith continues to be discussed and the July 5 fight between Catterall and Eubank is a collaborative effort between Matchroom and Wasserman.

Heavyweight boxing will forever be almost a different sport in terms of its reach and appeal but whilst British fighters currently dominate the sport’s glamour division, further down the weight scale, a number of well established, household names are coming towards the end of their careers and the search is on for the next batch of young fighters capable of generating interest and filling arenas.

The best way to create stars is to put them into meaningful matchups on high-profile cards. The more of them, the better.

“I think we've signed some tremendous young fighters recently,” Smith said.

“For a few years we weren't making fights. We had good fighters in warm-up fights or stay-busy fights and that's partly because of the competition in the market.

“When new people are coming in with a load of money and saying, 'You can fight this name you've never heard of and earn a lot more money that way', it's like, 'Well, why would I take a test?' But that's not actually beneficial to the long run of the sport in reality.

“But it's obviously hard to explain that to people because they go, 'I'm getting paid for a fight against someone no one's ever heard of in an easy fight'.

“I understand that, by the way, but I think you have to think about the long-term of the sport and your long-term involvement in the sport and being able to build crowds and build the hype around the sport.

“That's why we need to make fights like [Catterall-Eubank]. It's not rocket science. You need to make fights that people buy-in to and I think for too long that didn't happen.”