Fight of the year: Warren vs. Hearn

By Boxing News - 03/11/2013 - Comments

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By Ben Walton: Breaking news from the UK, is that Scottish WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns has left promoter Frank Warren and has signed for up and coming young gun, Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom sports.

It is thought to be a three fight deal, with Burns making his first defence on the 11th may in his native Scotland.

This is a massive coup for Matchroom, who last week also signed ex-Warren fighter George Groves.

Surely Frank Warren must be feeling pretty wounded at the moment, after a growing exodus of fighters to detract from the once powerhouse stable of UK boxing, which has produced the likes of Naseem Hammed, Nigel Benn, Joe Calzaghe, and Ricky Hatton, some of the countries best fighters in the last two decades. It’s time for Frank to put the gumshield back in and show what he’s made of.

Make no mistake, Warren is one tough cookie and a very shrewd man indeed. He fought to get to the pinnacle of UK boxing, releasing the grip of old foe Micky duff, and also overcoming Eddie’s father and founder of the Matchroom empire Barry Hearn.

One thing Warren does well as a promoter, is protect and guide a fighter, from their early days through to world championship level, and when the timing is right, with crucial tenacity he would normally deliver a world title to UK shores.

It’s all very well Matchroom signing established fighters that are already household names, its knowing the routes to take them at the right time, and also learning through experience, how to guide a novice to world contention – that they have yet to prove themselves at.

Eddie Hearn looks the part as an up and coming promoter, he’s passionate about his fighters (who will forget his keystone cops exit from the ring after jumping in to congratulate Froch after the Bute KO) he talks a good fight, and has the financial baking of the Matchroom sports empire.

But to be fair, at the moment their record does not look too great, during the last year they have taken four fighters abroad and gotten them all beat. It will be interesting to see how things pan out for these guys during the coming 18 months.

Meanwhile, with looming court cases quite possibly on the horizon between the two, Warren still has The likes of unbeaten WBO light heavyweight Nathan Cleverly, who’s unification fight with Bernard Hopkins looks inevitable down the line, also current commonwealth and British middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders is possibly one for the future at world level. Along with his fight Channel BoxNation, which has been a fair success so far. It’s not quite over yet in my opinion.

One things for sure, Frank Warren is on the ropes. But counting the astute survivor out would be a big mistake. He will not give up without one hell of a fight.



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