Harlem Eubank signs contract extension after ‘time cost’ with Adam Azim

Harlem Eubank hopes to secure a date and opponent in the coming weeks after agreeing a contract extension with promoters Wasserman.

The junior welterweight, 30, last fought in November when in Brighton he stopped Timo Schwarzkopf, but he expects to start rebuilding towards a bigger fight after his career stalled when a proposed contest with his domestic rival Adam Azim came to little.

He has signed what has been described as a “multi-year contract extension”, and Wasserman plan to confirm his next move before Charlie Edwards fights Thomas Essomba on September 27 on the same Channel 5 platform on which they will continue to showcase Eubank.

“He’ll be out in the before the end of the year, on Channel 5,” Wasserman’s Kalle Sauerland told BoxingScene. “We’re keen on the big fights, domestically, and building up to internationally. But we have to manage the career of Harlem and not let outside factors dictate where his career goes. It’s about making the right fights at the right times. If that’s the Azim fight, then brilliant, but it’s got to be at the right time in the right place, and in the right conditions.

“We’ll know in the next couple of weeks. We had a great first show with Harlem down in Brighton – it’s something we’d like to build on. It’s an area – the Eubank name is synonymous to it. We talk about the Azim fight; we talk about the Dalton Smith fight; we talk about the Conor Benn fight, it’s not just the name that puts him a little bit ahead of them, promotional-wise – he’s been on Channel 5. That’s the great thing about free-to-air boxing. He’s had considerably more eyeballs on him than other fighters at this stage of their careers. He was one of the first signings we made when the Wasserman deal came about.

“The whole episode around Azim has cost some time. Now it’s about getting things back on track. The Conor Benn fight; the Azim fight; the Dalton Smith fight. They’re all big, big nights. [Until then] this is about continuing the good work as a team; where we left off; improving that world ranking; cementing the face and the name. Those names will come, alongside major title shots as well. 

“I don’t really want to comment on the negotiations around it. It was important to get the extension in and keep going the way we want to be going.”

A fight between Eubank and Azim was essentially announced – prematurely – in March when they were invited into the ring shortly before the British and Commonwealth heavyweight title fight between Frazer Clarke and Fabio Wardley at London’s O2 Arena.

Wardley-Clarke II so recently being scheduled for Saudi Arabia in October is a reflection of the extent to which the British boxing scene is increasingly at risk of being neglected as a consequence of the influence of investment from Saudi Arabia, but Sauerland insisted that Wasserman intends on continuing to build Eubank within the UK.

“Our Channel 5 agreement calls for that,” he continued. “The sport looks for the pinnacle of the big events, but outside of that you need to keep the domestic scene going. It’s as simple as that. Absolutely, we’re committed to that.”

“Wasserman Boxing has always felt like a home to me,” Eubank said. “I’m excited to have signed a multi-year contract extension with them. This is a pivotal point in my career, with major fights and titles ahead, and I’m confident that the platform Kalle and Nisse [Sauerland] have set out for me is exactly what I need.”