A deal has been done between Boxxer and the BBC for fights to be shown on TV or iPlayer on a Saturday night. Obviously that will include upcoming Callum Simpson fights. He said during his commentary on Radio Sheffield last weekend that his next fight should be announced in the next couple of weeks, and is likely to be later this year.
Great news for Callum as he'll have a much bigger TV audience, increase his public profile. Back to the days of the 80s and 90s when our boxers were household names.
Although this is a great concept in principle, it's not a deal which will be flowing in cash in regards to a rights fees being paid towards Boxxer. The BBC will cover the costs of the production and transmission but that's it.
Wouldn’t be surprised if he signed with either and ended up on the undercard to Dave Allen at Sheffield arena.
BBC’s probably not a good move for fighters like Whittaker & Clarke who have much bigger names & will have been on huge contracts but I think a year or two on there will be brilliant for Simpson. He’s big locally but BBC could take it to another level. He doesn’t want to move to DAZN until he’s at the top level. Very few watch it
It will be interesting to see what Boxxer's stable retention is like following this announcement. There is a fair amount of murmuring's of discontent within so will be interesting to see how things play out. Whenever I've communicated with Ben Shalom he has always been pleasant enough.