Ben Shalom has claimed that the general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control Robert Smith ‘sees no problem’ with the £1m bet between him and Eddie Hearn on the outcome of Chris Eubank Jr v Conor Benn.
The two promoters had agreed to the staggering wager on the main event at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where Eubank and Benn will finally meet on The Ring’s Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves card,
live on DAZN PPV.
It had been suggested that Shalom, who promotes Eubank, and Hearn, who has promoted Benn for his entire career, would have a straight £1m bet on the fight winner.
But in March, Hearn revealed during an interview with IFL TV that an email from the British Boxing Board of Control had reminded everyone involved of ‘regulation 30’ which 'states that any member, ie licence holder, cannot bet, advise anyone else to bet or permit to bet on any event that they have any involvement with'.
Now, during an interview with The Ring, Shalom has cranked up the pressure on Hearn by claiming that a personal bet between them on the outcome of the fight would not be breaking any rules, according to Smith.
“He keeps trying to get out of this bet that he put on,” Shalom told Louis Hart.
“He put this on and now he wants to go off it and he keeps running into Robert Smith to try and get out of it.
“It’s absolutely fine, we are betting on them to win, Robert Smith told me he saw no problem with it.
“You are backing your fighters, it’s us v them, we’re both getting paid out of the event and you could easily have an extra million for the winner and less for the loser. It’s absolutely fine to happen.
“He’s going on about the changes of the rules and all that stuff but we don’t need to change the rules, let’s do it.”
When asked for a response by The Ring, Smith said: “I advised on the situation with regard to the rules some time ago. I told Ben there was a regulation in place that has been in place for many years. It seems This is more a wager between two people.”