‘He learned nothing’: Tony Bellew and Ben Shalom debate matchmaking for Moses Itauma and Adam Azim
· Yahoo Sports
Matchmaking is something of an art in the boxing world, and always has been. Young fighters need to develop in the ring as well as develop a following in order to make bigger fights commercially viable, which like it or not, is a huge portion of why certain fights happen and others might not.
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Former champ Tony Bellew and Boxxer promoter Ben Shalom debated the matchmaking of young stars Moses Itauma and Adam Azim on the Fight Your Corner podcast, with Bellew arguing that neither young fighter is learning anything from recent fights, and Shalom countering that the two are still quite young, have a long road ahead of them, and do still need to learn, and be able to sell.
For reference, Itauma stopped Jermaine Franklin in the fifth round on March 28, while Azim just stopped Steve Claggett in the third round on May 30.
Tony Bellew: Do you think Adam’s ceiling is is on the same trajectory as Moses?
Ben Shalom: I believe he’s the closest thing, by some distance.
TB: Is there a reason, then, you’re matching him so carefully?
BS: We’re not matching him that carefully—
TB: The last one was a careful match, Ben.
BS: He was supposed to fight Gustavo Lemos, wasn’t he? Lemos was a proper fight. And Steve Claggett is, at the end of the day, look at his previous fights—
TB: The Claggett fight is like what Jermaine Franklin is for Moses Itauma. It’s useless.
BS: No.
TB: You know what’s gonna happen.
BS: No, no you don’t. Not when Steve Claggett’s not been stopped in over 10 years.
TB: OK, well, Jermaine Franklin [had] never been stopped. What’s your point?
BS: OK, do you know he’s going to knock him out in three rounds? You don’t know that.
TB: What I can’t get me head around with Moses Itauma — you just said the ceiling is, for Adam Azim, you don’t know what the ceiling is, you think this kid could be pound-for-pound. That’s what you’re basically saying.
BS: Pound-for-pound, I truly believe that.
TB: If he’s a pound-for-pound, one of the ones — same thing for Moses, and I’m a big fan of Moses Itauma. But I’m just, like, why are you sticking him in with Jermaine Franklin? That’s not gonna tell us anything.
BS: I think for Moses, that heavyweight division is so dangerous, that it’s better to learn what you don’t know.
TB: OK, but if you’re good enough, you’re ready.
BS: He’s got a long career.
TB: It’s the same with Adam Azim — he has got a long career, and I think (Itauma’s) the boy who’s gonna light everyone up. But (Itauma) ain’t learning nothing by teeing off on a heavy bag. And Adam Azim’s not gonna learn nothing — he learned nothing in that Claggett fight.
BS: No one wants to be a world champion and not (be able to) draw, not have the numbers and not have the tickets. So you do, as a promoter, have to think, commercially, when he fights for that title, which is now imminent, he’s at a place where he’s going to really sell.
As is usually the case in a debate of this sort with boxing, I think there are valid points made on either side. While Azim beating Claggett the way he did was impressive, or at least I thought so, no, nobody thought Claggett would actually win that fight or be any sort of real threat to do so. Same with Itauma and Franklin.
Did Azim and Itauma become better fighters because of those fights? Perhaps not. But I always have thought the at the ages these guys are — Itauma is 21, Azim is 24 — a lot of the value of these fights comes from the training camps ahead of them, and then executing on fight night. It’s reps. No athlete gets better just from the game or the fight, a lot of it comes in practice, preparation, and understanding the process better as you go along.
Tony Bellew was a pro fighter, and a good one, but Bellew is also now a boxing media personality, and trust me, the most effective way to make your “content” popular in the internet age is by being aggressive with your statements, and often playing the contrarian. But Bellew knows the process. He’s lived it. He’s seen it many times. Still, there is something valid in what he’s saying, too. If these two are as good as they’re thought to be, as they’re hoped to be, then maybe the competition should be a bit stiffer. If they’re this much better than the Franklins and Claggetts of the world, surely they can face stiffer foes.
But again, there is an art to matchmaking, and there are also so many thing to consider within that. It’s not just, well, play it safe until a world title fight or a big money fight. To do it really right, you have to find that balance, you have to pull the trigger at the right time. It’s not always the simplest thing. It also depends on who’s available, and who will step up and fight some hotshot young fighter, too. You also have to have the right young fighter, who really does have that sort of ceiling, if you’re aiming for a superstar.
And then, at the end of it, everyone does want to make money. What’s commercially viable? How do you balance it all and come out with the best “product”? And, in these cases, who should Azim have been fighting other than Claggett or Itauma other than Franklin? What were the particularly better, actually available options? Maybe there were options available who were better. Maybe not.
What’s your take on all this?
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