By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn will be holding a press conference this Monday to make an announcement about a major signing to his Matchroom Sport stable. There’s speculation that it might be lightweight Kevin Mitchell (33-2, 24 KO’s) or possibly WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns. However, Burns’ promoter Frank Warren is saying he still has him under contract, so the chances are it won’t be him.
Mitchell lost his last fight to Burns by a 4th round knockout last September, and has now lost two out of his last four fights. I’m not sure how good of an acquisition he would be to Hearn’s stable if he is the one that will be signing for him. If Mitchell can’t beat the likes of Burns and Michael Katsidis, then what does that suggest about his future?
I also wouldn’t be surprised if Hearn announces that Burns is the guy he’ll be signing, although I seriously doubt that. I think it’s going to be Mitchell all the way, and in that case I don’t consider it a big announcement.
Hearn’s promotional stable is growing in leaps and bounds, no doubt helped by the fact that he has a sweet contract with Sky Sports. If he keeps going at this rate, Hearn will have picked up many of the top fighters in the UK, and he might have to branch out to signing fighters from other parts of the world to help fatten his stable even further.
I wonder what’ll happen once Hearn no longer has the Sky contract? I can only imagine how quickly fighters will be looking to jump ship for the next promoter that takes over the Sky contract. Ideally, Sky should focus on making contracts with specific fighters from all of the different promotional companies so that other guys get a shot at being televised by them. That seems like the fair way to do it.
Comments are closed.