Ben Shalom Responds To Martin Bakole Claiming He Is ‘Ruining His Career’: “It’s Very Disappointing”

The public fallout between promoter Ben Shalom and heavyweight fighter Martin Bakole has not yet been resolved.

Bakole took to social media back in April and claimed that the reason he has fought so little in the last 12 months is down to the inaction of his promotional outfit, Boxxer.

Shalom initially responded and said that he won’t be “bullied” by the fighter or his team and that he hoped the situation could be resolved in private.

He also claimed that many opponents had been offered to Bakole and his manager Billy Nelson to fight on the undercard of Oleksandr Usyk versus Rico Verhoeven last weekend, but that all were knocked back.

Speaking to Ariel Helwani, Shalom again pushed back on claims he is holding Bakole back.

“Ruining his career? When we’ve literally changed his life and made him a multi, multi-millionaire? That’s an interesting one, but again, there’s people around him.

“It’s a funny time because I think as promoters, and I’ve seen it a lot with these new people in the business being extremely aggressive, and in my honest opinion, motivating fighters to break their contracts, financially, so that’s a difficult one to deal with because you’re not used to that.

“You’re used to people respecting the contracts, you’re used to people respecting the investment you’ve made, you’re used to people honouring that and so particularly with the hard work we have put in and the opportunities they have turned down recently that surprises.”

Bakole was last out in May 2025, drawing with Efe Ajagba just a couple of months after he was stopped inside two rounds by Joseph Parker when he stepped up as a late replacement for Daniel Dubois.

At one point, he was considered one of the most avoided heavyweights on the planet following his knockout of American Jared Anderson in 2024.