Matchroom Boxing are in talks to add British cruiserweight champion Viddal Riley to their growing stable.
Riley recently announced on social media that he had become a free agent, having previously been signed to Ben Shalom’s Boxxer. Boxxer’s four-year broadcast deal with Sky Sports came to an end in June. Light heavyweight Ben Whittaker, arguably Boxxer’s biggest star, announced last week that he had signed a long-term deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. Riley might be next to make the switch.
“Yeah I've been speaking to Vidal and his team at 258,” Matchroom CEO Frank Smith told BoxingScene. “I had a meeting with him. I think it's exciting what could be done with Viddal [Riley].”
Although Riley - once on the books of Mayweather Promotions - was a decorated amateur boxer for one of the UK’s leading boxing establishments, Repton ABC, he is yet to make a huge splash in the professional ranks. Riley made his name as a streamer, and gained traction off the likes of KSI and other YouTube stars as they made their journey into boxing. As such, Riley has always struggled to shrug off the ‘YouTuber’ tag, despite winning the British title with a win over Tokyo Olympian Chev Clarke in April.
“I always feel like he's still viewed a bit more as a gimmick because of the world he came from,” said Smith. “His ability… I said this to him, he should be viewed as a high level professional boxer, but I think because of that world, when you see the fighters he's been in with, obviously a great win against Chev Clarke against us that night in April. But yeah, I think it's interesting, and we'll see what happens next, but everyone's going to be talking to Viddal of course. Like I said, he's a great talent with a huge profile.”
Riley is ranked at No.12 by the IBF at cruiserweight, and the current champion Jai Opetaia is also promoted by Matchroom Boxing. Smith was asked if that would be a possible route to go down for Riley, should he put pen to paper with Matchroom.
“Possibly,” Smith replied. “Jai [Opetaia] has obviously got another mandatory against Cinkara [in December], he wants to look at unifying the belts understandably. He's been frustrated of course with not getting those opportunities to unify, so I think that will be the aim first. But you know anything's possible or even a vacant title [shot for Riley] if Jai eventually moves up.”
