Adam Azim was set to fight on the Chris Eubank Jr. vs Conor Benn card this April, but after rejecting multiple opponents, Hearn says, Azim will not be on the card. One such opponent is Dalton Smith, who won the European title last night.
Eddie Hearn has given a scathing critique of Adam Azim and his team, namely his promoter, Ben Shalom after Azim tweeted ‘Is this for a EBU title. What am I watching?’ last night, as Dalton Smith won the European title against Walid Ouizza via first-round stoppage.
When asked about the tweet, Hearn called Adam Azim’s management ‘an absolute car crash’. He goes on to say multiple fights were offered for the Eubank Benn undercard, but all were turned down.
Hearn listed all fights offered to Adam Azim, and why they fell through.
Adam Azim Opponents
Dalton Smith
The fight fans have anticipated for a while, Hearn says, was offered to Adam Azim’s team for the Eubank Benn undercard. According to Hearn, Boxxer suggested Adam Azim needed more preparation time for the Dalton Smith fight, and so rejected the offer.
Montana Love
This opponent was not a rejection from Azim, but a fight that simply fell through. Hearn states that after rejecting Dalton Smith, ‘We made Adam Azim against Montana Love […] when we tried to close the contracts, we couldn’t get it over the line with Montana Love.’
Montana Love is 18-2, losing via DQ to Steve Spark, and by KO to Liam Paro.
Hearn says after the Love fight fell through, Boxxer offered a few opponents which Saudi turned down as they were not good enough, and that both Matchroom and Queensberry offered a fighter, both of which were turned down.
Pierce O’Leary
The next fighter Adam Azim turned down was Pierce O’Leary. O’Leary is 16-0 with 9 knockouts to his name, and holds wins over Darragh Foley and Kane Gardner.
Sean McComb
Matchroom put forward Sean McComb for the Adam Azim fight, but this was also rejected.
McComb has only two losses – one by stoppage to Gavin Gwynne in 2021, and a controversial split-decision loss to Arnold Barboza Jr. who is set to face Jack Catterall for the WBO interim world title next month.
As a result of these rejections, Adam Azim will no longer fight on the Eubank Benn undercard, and has instead been replaced with Chris Billam-Smith who will face Brandon Glanton in his comeback fight after losing to Gilberto Ramirez.
Hearn on Adam Azim
After speaking on Azim’s team’s rejections, Eddie pleaded, ‘please don’t talk to me about Dalton Smith [… you can’t keep piping up on Twitter calling Dalton’s name if you just won’t fight him […] they’re not ready for Dalton Smith’.
He also poked fun at Azim’s next opponent, Sergey Lipinets, who he fights for the IBO world title on Feb 1st. ‘I think he’s having his fiftieth birthday when he comes to London’. Lipinets is in fact 35 years old.
He also speaks on trying to make Caroline Dubois vs Beatriz Ferreira – which he said he’d do with no purse at all for Ferreira – another fight which Boxxer rejected.
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