BOXXER have announced three big bills coming up this summer, headlined by Joshua Buatsi, Chris Billam-Smith and Adam Azim.
On Saturday, June 10 BOXXER head to London where new school meets old school as the incredible Adam Azim, 8-0 (6), competes at the historic York Hall, which holds a special place in British boxing folklore.
Azim, 20, has been heralded as a future world champion and last month overcame Santos Reyes at Wembley's OVO Arena to extend his remarkable start to life as a professional fighter.
BOXXER Founder and CEO, Ben Shalom, said: "We are excited to announce phase one of what is a huge schedule coming up for BOXXER and Sky Sports.
"It's amazing to see new headliners get to the top, new marquee signings start with us and the return of fighters from injury. It really is going to be a ground-breaking few months with career-defining fights and huge nights.
"A special thanks to Joe Ashford-Ellis and AFC Bournemouth for making everything possible for us to stage our first-ever UK stadium show - and a first for the Premier League club too."
Last edited by Ruthless-RKO on 15 May 2023, 11:57, edited 2 times in total.
Sammy Scaff wrote: ↑22 Mar 2023, 10:55
Looking like 3 stay busy headline fights from Boxxer.
Some attractive names on undercards but I don’t expect they’ll be pushed too hard either.
Don't think CBS would be having a stay busy in a stadium.
Sammy Scaff wrote: ↑22 Mar 2023, 10:55
Looking like 3 stay busy headline fights from Boxxer.
Some attractive names on undercards but I don’t expect they’ll be pushed too hard either.
Don't think CBS would be having a stay busy in a stadium.
Maybe being a bit unkind but I can’t really get excited about anyone at CW just now. Even the Top 5 hardly get the adrenaline going for me.
Sammy Scaff wrote: ↑22 Mar 2023, 10:55
Looking like 3 stay busy headline fights from Boxxer.
Some attractive names on undercards but I don’t expect they’ll be pushed too hard either.
Don't think CBS would be having a stay busy in a stadium.
Sammy Scaff wrote: ↑22 Mar 2023, 10:55
Looking like 3 stay busy headline fights from Boxxer.
Some attractive names on undercards but I don’t expect they’ll be pushed too hard either.
Don't think CBS would be having a stay busy in a stadium.
Adam Azim Will Face The Much More Experienced Faniian In His Third Consecutive Headliner
It’s another Adam Azim headliner and it’s another big step up.
NoSmokeSport.com has learnt that highly-rated prospect Adam Azim (8-0, 6 KOs) will defend his WBA Continental title against the reigning IBO International champion, Ukraine’s Aram Faniian (22-1, 4 KOs) in his ring return on June 10th at the 1,200-capacity historic York Hall, London, Live on Sky Sports.
Both Azim and Faniian’s trinket belts will be on the line with Azim now also world-ranked with the WBA at #14. Faniian doesn’t hold a world ranking but is #11 in the EBU rankings and beating him will earn Azim the ranking he needs to be able to challenge for the European Super Lightweight title.
After a tremendous 2022, which included 5 KO victories in 5 fights all inside three rounds, Azim, who is sometimes labelled as Britain’s best prospect, took on fellow undefeated Santos Reyes. A dangerous South American who extended Azim the full 10-round distance.
Azim suffered a fractured scaphoid when he dropped the Nicaraguan in the second round and fought with that injury for the remainder of the contest. This injury scuppered plans to return to the ring in March ut wasn’t as bad as experts first thought.
Adam Azim (8-0, 6 KO’s), British boxing’s brightest prospect, steps up another level for his next outing when he faces IBO International champion Aram Fanyan (22-1, 4 KOs) at the historic York Hall, London on Saturday June 10th.
The bout headlines the BOXXER fight night event, which airs live and exclusively in the UK and Ireland on Sky Sports.
Azim’s amateur career included ten national championships and had him marked from an early age as a potential future star. He started 2023 with a win over the previously-undefeated South American slugger Santos Reyes.
Having fractured the scaphoid bone in his right wrist en route to the unanimous decision win over Reyes - possibly when he dropped the Nicaraguan in the second round - Azim has elected to take another huge challenge now that he is fully recovered and returning to the fray.
Fanyan has lost just once in 23 professional outings, dropping a decision during a 2019 challenge for the WBC Youth Silver Super Lightweight Championship. Since then, Fanyan has gone on a nine-fight win streak and has begun collecting the kind of titles needed to build a base for eventual world title contention.
In his last outing, Fanyan beat Timo Schwarzkopf to win the IBO International Super Lightweight championship and prior to that he captured the WBO Oriental Super Lightweight championship.
For Azim, this high-risk fight brings the possibility of high rewards, with victory moving him up the WBA rankings from his current #14 spot and also potentially levering him into European title contention.
The road to title contention also leads Frazer ‘Big Fraze’ Clarke (6-0, 5 KO’s) to York Hall for what will also be his first appearance in the iconic British boxing venue.
Having last week received news that he will be the next mandatory challenger for British heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley, the 2020 Olympic medallist will sharpen his tools in the ring on June 10th ahead of his summer title showdown.
Cruiserweight prospect Viddal Riley (8-0, 5 KO’s) and his antagonist Anees Taj (7-3, 5 KO’s) have some unfinished business to attend to following their February war ending unsatisfactorily in a fourth-round doctor’s stoppage due to a cut above Taj’s eyebrow.
In another bad-blood encounter confirmed for the card, a war of words which began in Manchester last month will be settled in London in June when unbeaten prospects in Aaron ‘The Silencer’ McKenna (16-0, 8 KOs) and Shakiel ‘Dr Steel’ Thompson (10-0, 6 KOs) meet in a middleweight contest for the WBC International Middleweight Championship.
The two were on the same card last month and exchanged words at the pre-fight press conference, instantly sparking interest in an encounter among Britain’s boxing fanbase. The surely-heated clash takes place next month and is a high-stakes encounter - one will leave the ring as champion, the other with the first loss of his professional career.
"Numerous British boxing greats have passed through the iconic York Hall on their way to the top and on June 10th it's Adam Azim's turn to take his next step to greatness at this storied venue. He's a risk-taker who takes big steps up with every fight and I think in future we will look back at this fight as a pivotal moment in his career," said Ben Shalom, BOXXER Founder and CEO.
“On top of that, I'm excited to see Frazer Clarke make his final preparations ahead of his British title shot later this year and I'm really looking forward to Viddal Riley against Anees Taj and Aaron McKenna against Shakiel Thompson - those are two seriously heated matches which are going to be guaranteed crowd-pleasers.”
Rising star Callum Simpson will take a step to greatness when he returns to the ring on June 10 at London’s iconic York Hall – as Adam Azim headlines in a WBA Continental Super-Lightweight Championship bout with Aram Fanyan.
Barnsley super-middleweight Simpson (11-0, 9 KOs) sensationally stopped Celso Neves last month in Manchester on his BOXXER debut.
And the prodigal 26-year-old will be intent on creating more headlines when he ventures to the capital for the first time in his career this summer – live, in the UK & Republic of Ireland, on Sky Sports.
Unbeaten prospects Aaron ‘The Silencer’ McKenna (16-0, 8 KOs) and Shakiel ‘Dr Steel’ Thompson (10-0, 6 KOs) meet in a mouth-watering middleweight contest for the vacant WBC International Middleweight Championship.
The road to title contention also leads Frazer ‘Big Fraze’ Clarke (6-0, 5 KO’s) to York Hall for what will also be his first appearance at the fabled British boxing venue.
Having last week received news that he will be the next mandatory challenger for British heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley, the 2020 Olympic medallist will sharpen his tools in the ring on June 10th ahead of his summer title showdown.
Cruiserweight prospect Viddal Riley (8-0, 5 KO’s) and his antagonist Anees Taj (7-3, 5 KO’s) have some unfinished business to attend to following their February war ending unsatisfactorily in a fourth-round doctor’s stoppage due to a cut above Taj’s eyebrow.
Elsewhere on the card, brother of headliner Adam, welterweight Hassan Azim (6-0, 3 KOs) looks to extend his unbeaten start to life as a professional.
English champion Sam Gilley (15-1, 7 KOs) will be out to light up his native East End after impressing last time out at Ally Pally last November.
The ‘Magic Man’ dropped Sean Robinson in the sixth en route to a unanimous points victory to successfully defend his title Rhys Edwards (14-0, 4 KOs) produced a breathtaking performance in his win over Brian Phillips in Manchester last month – and the undefeated Welsh super-bantamweight will be back in action on June 10. As will Iranian featherweight Razor Ali (7-0, 1 KO), who wowed at Wembley back in February with his third round stoppage of Hector Avila Lozano.
And the series 8 winner of popular TV series ‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’ Joshua Gustave will be on display too. The Ilford middleweight is 4-0 as a professional with all four victories coming from fights at York Hall.
In a hotel in Dubai and just been on the next breakfast table to Lee Eaton, Ohara Davies, Harley Benn etc and overheard Eaton saying they’d booked York Hall for this date and Shalom bought it off them for a sizeable fee plus a few future undercard slots and were all pissing themselves about it. Had his pants down basically.
ashall2 wrote: ↑10 May 2023, 03:18
In a hotel in Dubai and just been on the next breakfast table to Lee Eaton, Ohara Davies, Harley Benn etc and overheard Eaton saying they’d booked York Hall for this date and Shalom bought it off them for a sizeable fee plus a few future undercard slots and were all pissing themselves about it. Had his pants down basically.
Why would they buy the date of them and sizable amount?
ashall2 wrote: ↑10 May 2023, 03:18
In a hotel in Dubai and just been on the next breakfast table to Lee Eaton, Ohara Davies, Harley Benn etc and overheard Eaton saying they’d booked York Hall for this date and Shalom bought it off them for a sizeable fee plus a few future undercard slots and were all pissing themselves about it. Had his pants down basically.
Why would they buy the date of them and sizable amount?
Is this some important date or something?
Think it was the venue more than anything but may have been told a certain date by Sky to go for.
Adam Azim (8-0, 6 KO’s) will next month face Ukrainian Aram Fanyan (22-1, 4 KO’s) at London’s historic York Hall on Friday, June 16th.
The 20-year-old prodigy has former world champion Amir Khan predicting he will win his first world championship before 22, the age Khan first became champion.
In pursuit of his fast-track to contention, Azim steps up another level again for his next opponent when he faces Fanyan, who has nearly three times the amount of professional experience and has lost just once in his career.
Caroline Dubois (6-0, 5 KO’s), Azim’s stablemate at McGuigan’s Gym under noted trainer Shane McGuigan, is also taking a step up in opposition on June 16th as she seeks to continue her rise to the top of her division.
Yanina del Carmen Lescano (13-2, 4 KO’s) was just one scorecard away from becoming IBO World Lightweight Champion last year, losing her March 2022 title challenge against 2016 Olympic gold medallist Estelle Mossely by way of a split-decision which sparked much debate among boxing's fanbase.
Since then she has made three more defences of the South American Lightweight Championship she won in 2020. Two of those three wins have come by way of knockout, the most recent being a quick finish in her native Argentina last month.
Riding a five-fight streak of KO and TKO wins, Dubois is also a proven fight-finisher.
Previously scheduled for June 10th - the same day as the Champion’s League Final - the event will now take place in the same venue on Friday, June 16th and will air live and exclusively on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Showcase in the UK and Ireland.
All tickets purchased for the sold-out event on the original date remain valid for the new date.
The move comes as a result of changes to the programming schedule following the recent relocation of the blockbuster Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jr event to a new date of July 1st - a result of Smith extending his training camp by two weeks to work around a minor injury - and also avoids a clash with the Champions League Final taking place that night.
“With the event already sold out, we’re expecting an incredible atmosphere in York Hall on Friday, June 16th as Adam Azim headlines for the third time in his young professional career. His Ukrainian opponent Aram Fanyan is dangerous and experienced - it’s a very tough test for Adam as he continues his remarkable rise,” remarked BOXXER’s promoter and CEO Ben Shalom.
“Caroline Dubois is taking on an incredible challenge on June 16th as well. Yanina Lescano nearly became world champion last year, a lot of people felt she won that fight against Estelle Mossely and should be champion now.
"For Caroline to be facing a recent world title contender in just her seventh professional fight speaks volumes about her level and her heart. I’ve always said she’s going to be the future face of women’s boxing and it’s fights like this which will get her there.
“The fact we’re moving from the same evening as the Champions League Final is a total coincidence but it’s definitely welcome news for those fans who were set to spend their night double-screening between this card and the football. I expect a few of the fighters on the card will be quite pleased as well!”
Other treats on the June 16th card include the return to the ring of slick super-middleweight Callum Simpson (11-0, 9 KO’s), a hotly-tipped prospect by boxing insiders, and a highly-charged rematch between feuding cruiserweights Viddal Riley (8-0, 5 KO’s) and Anees Taj (7-3, 5 KO’s).
It’s a literal ‘bad blood’ second tilt: Riley won their February fight by way of doctor’s stoppage due to a cut over Taj’s eyebrow, but neither man was satisfied with the conclusion and they now seek a more definitive end to their feud.
