Callum Simpson expects his next fight to be promoted by Boxxer, regardless of the uncertainty that surrounds the organisation following the conclusion of their broadcast agreement with Sky Sports.
The European, British and Commonwealth super-middleweight champion had come to represent one of Boxxer’s and Sky Sports’ most valuable assets on account of both his potential and increasing popularity, and to the extent that stadium fights in successive summers had been among their highlights of 2024 and 2025.
He hopes that that popularity may yet contribute to him securing a fight later in 2025 with the promising Hamzah Sheeraz, like Simpson of England. His dramatic stoppage of Italy’s Ivan Zucco in June has been followed by him since being giving a world ranking by each of the four recognised sanctioning bodies, but even if he remains an unlikely future opponent for the undisputed champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, regardless of Boxxer’s insecurity he is confident that his year will end on a high.
Beyond proving himself an entertaining fighter, it is the 28-year-old Simpson’s ability to sell tickets both in his hometown of Barnsley and beyond that means that he remains so valuable to Ben Shalom’s promotional organisation. Partly to that end he has continued to train – doing so in Las Vegas and the Balearic islands of Ibiza and Mallorca – despite Zucco proving the toughest of his 18 professional contests, ultimately in an attempt to be ready to for whenever his next fight date is confirmed and his training camp needs to start.
“I’m still very confident I’ll be out with Boxxer before the end of the year,” he told BoxingScene. “I’ve not got the details, but they’ve got an announcement to be made soon. I’m very confident I’ll still be promoted by Boxxer at the end of the year.
“I’m very proud to be ranked with all sanctioning bodies – and to be as high as fourth with the IBF, and the top 10 with the rest. Growing up you always look at the top-10 rankings; to finally be in them gives you that credit. It’s nice to be in touching distance of a world title. Which world title we’ll be looking for I’m not sure, but Hamzah Sheeraz had a great win and I’ve seen his manager Spencer Brown saying that I’m a potential opponent. I’ve got a lot of respect for Hamzah – he’s a great fighter – really nice, humble, down to earth. But that’s a fight I’d love to take next, before the end of the year.”
Simpson’s success and growing profile with the four sanctioning bodies has meant him becoming enrolled with the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA). After one working holiday in Vegas and another to the Spanish party island of Ibiza for a friend’s wedding, he agreed to spend €80 – the cheapest tickets available that evening – to join friends at Hi, the nightclub widely considered the world’s best.
The celebrated DJ Black Coffee has a residency at Hi on Saturday evenings that perhaps represents the most popular party in drugs-fuelled Ibiza, but his three-plus hour set wouldn’t have started until 3am on the night Simpson was there and Simpson – who would have paid even more to enter after 1am, having instead secured a ticket to walk in shortly before midnight – left hours before that evening’s main event.
“I went to Las Vegas, had a week in Ibiza, and then Palma as well,” he explained. “I met up with John Scully and went and trained with ‘Bones’ Adams – did a few sessions with him; learned quite a bit off him – and just met a few of the boxing people. Went to John Scully’s boxing reunion, which was great. Then went to Ibiza for my friend’s wedding and found a good boxing gym out there that I’d been to before, got some work in over there, and over to Palma as well.
“When you’re ranked in the top 15 with the WBC you’ve got to enrol with VADA. They’ve reminded me to make sure I let them know my location when I’m going away. I let them know, ‘I’m in Ibiza for the next five days – this is where I’m staying, this is the gym I’m going to be training at, if you need to test me, they’re the details’. When I got back from Ibiza I had to let them know I was in Palma [Mallorca, Spain]; where I was staying. I let them know that I were in Palma, and they actually turned up in Palma. The day I got back from Ibiza [to the UK] I flew to Palma, and that night they rang me. ‘It’s VADA – we’ve come for a urine sample.’ I was out at a restaurant so I said they could come down to the restaurant, went to the restaurant toilet; did my urine sample. They’d seen I’d been in Ibiza and probably thought, ‘Let’s test this kid straight from Ibiza’, but I know that I don’t do anything I’m not supposed to, so we’re all good.
“It’s something very different for me. I’ve been tested on fight nights many times since I signed with Sky, but for me to constantly update VADA on my whereabouts and them turn up when I’m away to come and test me is very different. But it’s something I’m very happy to do. Recently there’s been people testing positive for certain banned substances, and I’m happy to – the sport should be clean and I’m happy to be voluntarily enrolled.
“Growing up as a boxer, you’ve got to isolate yourself and make certain sacrifices, but it’s important not to isolate yourself too much – you’ve still got a life to live. You’ve still got to do things with your friends and family. I was in Ibiza for a friend’s wedding. One of my friends’ girlfriend’s from Australia – the only place she’d been before is Bali, so she was in Ibiza for the first time and didn’t want to go home without going to an Ibiza club – one of the super clubs. We went there just to say she’d been, just to go – I got there just after it had opened and I was in there for about 20 minutes, just to go.
“There are loads of places I go and I put myself in certain environments where my friends are happy to have a drink and a little party. My friends know I’m not bothered about that stuff but I go to be social and have a catch up. It’s important, when you’re out boxing, you have a camp – you’re very isolated. You’ve got to still live your life and be able to do things with your friends and socialise as well. It was good. It’s not like I’ve never been to a club before – I enjoyed the live house music. The atmosphere were good. I saw a few people I’ve not seen for a few years there as well – people from back in England. It were a good environment; good music. But 20 minutes were long enough for me.
“A few years ago I probably was naive to the existence of PEDs in boxing. I always thought, because of my stance on it, no one would cheat or do anything like that. But as I’m getting older you hear about it a lot more; people testing positive. It’s a shame that it happens. As long as I know that I’m clean you can only hope that VADA, UKAD [UK Anti-Doping], do the best job possible to try and keep fighters safe and try and eliminate cheating where possible.”
On the undercard of Simpson’s stoppage of Zucco, Simpson’s compatriot Mark Jeffers lost for the first time, to Sean Hemphill, when it is little secret that had he won he may have fought Simpson next.
Where the champion was once keen to make three successful defences of his British title in an attempt to win it permanently his priorities are potentially changing even if Alvarez remains out of reach. Beyond the 26-year-old Sheeraz he has few suitable domestic rivals; a defence of his European title appears the most logical move of all.
“I’d been away to three different countries in four weeks but I trained in every single one of them,” he said. “I always take my wraps; I take my gloves and my running shoes, and make sure I can train wherever I go. I always find a boxing gym out there, or a boxing coach to do a bit of work with, and try and keep myself in shape. Even though it was a tough fight, I still felt good after. I was very achey for the week after the fight, as I always am – a few cuts and bruises to heal up – but I’m ready to get back in camp now and get back into fight-night shape. Ready to go, really.
“Mallorca were great. I went there to train for a week – I’ve been there a couple of times. It’s nice to get away and train in the sun when I’m not in camp. I went to train with Paul Hamilton – a week of enjoying the weather and training out there. Almost a pre-camp camp. It’s good to mix it up; had a few boxing sessions; strength sessions; some running on the beach; a bit of swimming. They’ve got a boxing gym [Fit Club] out there; good facilities; good food; it’s a good place to go.
“I’m hoping to be back by the end of the year. I’ve not got any dates, but I’m pretty confident I’ll be back out this year. I want to give myself a head start and start getting ready for, hopefully, a fight date in the near future. “Whether it’s a European title defense, a British defense, a Commonwealth defense or another title I’m not sure. But I’m hoping to be out before the end of the year.”
