Is Eddie Hearn holding boxing back?

By Smith-Dan - 02/10/2016 - Comments

hearn7890By Smith-Dan: On the face of it, it seems like a ridiculous question. How could the biggest promoter [Eddie Hearn] in the UK right now possibly be holding back boxing? How could a man who has a stable containing more than 6 current World champions, such as Kell Brook and Anthony Crolla, be having a detrimental effect on the sport?

At a time when boxing genuinely appears to be shunning some, of course not all, of the embarrassing politics involved in match-making, big fights involving British fighters have only very recently shown signs of catching up.

A worrying amount of fighters who have not had the biggest fights they could of had are under the Matchroom banner, whilst those who aren’t have been involved in some fantastic fights; Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir Klitschko and Billy Joe Saunders vs. Andy Lee spring to mind. Step forward Eddie Hearn, who constantly berates fighters who aren’t apparently willing to share a ring with his boxers, yet certain things are happening which would certainly call his claims in to question.

The first, and most blindingly obvious example of a fighter who has perhaps been slammed by Hearn unfairly is Amir ‘King’ Khan. Khan has history with Hearn, and looking back on it I would find it very hard to argue that Khan was at fault. For years and years Hearn has insulted Khan and repeatedly called him out in the media, whilst Brook has leveled many a derogatory insult his way too. All of this despite the fact the two men have not shared a weight division officially before 2014; an earlier fight for Khan with Julio Diaz was at a catch-weight of 143lb. At the height of the ill feeling towards each other in 2012, Khan was fighting at 140lb., Brook at 147lb.  

Hearn has been saying Amir’s name since 2011 and possibly even before, making it hard to understand any reason for the constant barrage of criticism other than piggy-backing on Khan’s superior popularity. This all came to a head when Brook finally got a fight against an opponent worth shouting about; Shawn Porter, and he won a World title.

Brook was fantastic in that performance, but it was a close fight, and looking at Brook’s record you could argue this is the first time he has been in with a boxer who was genuine World class at that point in their career. Attention again turned to an all British showdown, but Khan’s determination to try and secure a fight with Mayweather brought derision both from Matchroom and most of the British public, as well as quashing any chance of the fight being made until Mayweather retired.  

When his chances were dashed for the last time, there were apparently discussions between the opposing camps with a view to organising the fight we all want to see. I don’t want to get in to the tit-for-tat public arguments over who asked for what money, as we will never truly find out who was making the outlandish demands, but instead I would take a look at who they have both fought since Brook won the title.

Brook’s first defence was admittedly a mandatory challenger, but JoJo Dan was drastically under-prepared and was pulled out by his corner before the 5th round, suffering 4 knockdowns in the process. His next fight was against Frankie Gavin, who at the time was not a World level fighter, and Brook finished him in the 6th round of a one-sided contest. Khan fought Devon Alexander, a former World champion at both welterweight and light-welterweight, in December 2014 and won via a dominant decision in Vegas. He then went on to fight Chris Algieri.

This decision was mocked by some, but whilst Algieri was ruthlessly exposed by Manny Pacquiaio, he is 5’10” and at the very least an awkward fighter to face. Khan won by decision, which was somewhat disappointing, but it was another good performance against a former World champion. Brook’s next defence is against Kevin Bizier, whose most notable win is against former Brook victim Jo Jo Dan. Amir Khan is stepping up to 155lb. to fight Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, a top 10 pound-for-pound pugilist who is the former junior middleweight World champion and the current WBC World middleweight champion.

This for me raises two questions. Firstly, Brook and Hearn have consistently accused Khan of being afraid of the match-up. Why is it, then, that when their talks fell apart, Brook booked another underwhelming title defence and Khan is stepping up in weight, and arguably class, to fight one of the best in the World? I can’t imagine there was a lack of challengers to call, considering Keith Thurman vs. Shawn Porter was booked 4 days after and Brook has not fought since May 2015.

Whilst Thurman and Porter were already negotiating, their talks originally fell apart. If Brook seriously wanted to fight one of the best, I think a World title would have been a powerful negotiating tool. Secondly, am I really supposed to believe that Khan is running scared based on the fight he has taken instead?

Whilst that is the longest running and most famous example, there are signs of a theme developing when you look at the career of another prominent fighter under the Matchroom banner. The career of Anthony Joshua to this point has been fantastic. On the face of things, he has been moved up gradually in class and has absolutely delivered at every single stage.

He is a promoter’s dream and has had a meteoric rise since his Olympic gold medal at the 2012 games. In his last fight against Dillan Whyte, where he finally had to deal with an opponent who had the ability to fight back, he overcame some slight adversity to convincingly knock out his best adversary so far. After this fight, a bout with British heavyweight Dereck Chisora was touted, after he had knocked out 3 opponents in just over 3 weeks.

Talks broke down, and the line from the Joshua camp was a familiar one; we offered him good money and he turned it down, he must not want to fight AJ. This did not really add up, however, when Chisora booked himself a fight with a former World title challenger; Kubrat Pulev. Pulev is 3 inches taller than Chisora and although his record doesn’t contain many notable names, his only defeat so far was against Wladimir Klitschko. So, again, we will never know how much money Chisora was actually offered, but the “running scared” argument certainly doesn’t hold much water. Whilst Joshua would likely beat Chisora, the latter’s experience against taller and more powerful opponents means he would probably drag Joshua in to the later rounds and would not give him much room to maneuver.

Also, whilst Carl Frampton vs. Scott Quigg has recently been announced and will take place soon, it has been an acrimonious negotiation to say the least. The Frampton-Quigg affair has been going on for years, and draws similarities with Khan-Brook in terms of the arguments offered by both camps. The Quigg camp claimed Frampton was scared, the Frampton camp says Hearn priced them out of the fight. Eddie Hearn made a huge song and dance about offering Frampton the fight for 1.5 million pounds in April 2015. This was a strange decision; wheeling out a huge mock cheque in front of the cameras, seeing as the Frampton camp were mainly opposed to Hearn’s bully-boy tactics in the negotiations. If Frampton’s promoters were fed up of Hearn’s attempts to control all aspects of the potential fight, why would they in any way want to re-enter negotiations after being publicly humiliated by a man they already dislike? Hearn and Quigg’s right to control the bout were somewhat unsubstantiated. Quigg held the WBA (Regular) super bantamweight belt, and was only recently promoted to Super champion status after Guillermo Rigondeaux was stripped of the belt due to inactivity. Frampton holds the IBF super bantamweight belt, and has only been champion for about a year and a half less than Quigg. In the end, the fight was made, but there is certainly a pattern forming among the Matchroom fighters.

Whilst Hearn’s deal with Sky Sports has done a great deal to further boxing’s rising popularity in the UK, it is disappointing to see British fighters failing to test themselves at the very highest level. There are of course exceptions; James DeGale’s win over Andre Dirrell was fantastic, and fighters like Brian Rose and Paul Smith will commend Hearn’s efforts in securing them unlikely title shots. But Kell Brook should have been pushed up the ladder years before his title win, Quigg should have fought Frampton a few years ago, and there are a fair few other fighters under Hearn’s banner who need to be given a chance to impress at a higher level. Also, with Matchroom’s impressive roster, money-spinning deal with Sky Sports, and British World champions, is it time for Hearn to tone down his pantomime media persona? And it would be great if he stopped accusing fighters of being scared and just offered them more of a financial incentive to test their chances against his top talent.



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