By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn wants the fans to be more patriotic towards their fighters. I’m not too sure why Hearn is picking this time for him to want the fans to be more patriotic. Is it because the Kell Brook vs. Kevin Bizier fight failed to sell out? At any rate, Hearn wants the fans to be supporting the fighters.
I think the British fans would gladly support fighters like Brook if he were facing better opposition. I mean, fans support largely depends the quality of their opposition. Look at Floyd Mayweather Jr. When he fought Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Manny Pacquiao, he received a ton of support. On the flipside, when he fought Andre Berto and Robert Guerrero, the support was less so.
“I feel like we need to be more patriotic over our fighters,” said Hearn to skysports.com. “Kell Brook is the best welterweight in the world. It’s no good a promoter saying that – we have to prove it. Against Bizier we can prove it to a degree but then we go and do it against the elite fighters. Let’s get behind him. It’s going to be wonderful for British boxing. Let’s see Kell look spectacular tomorrow [Saturday] night. Believe in it. Believe in Kell Brook. Show some heart!”
Gosh, it almost sounds like Hearn is begging for the fans to support Brook. I don’t buy the patriotic bit when pleading for support. I think that’s lame. I wouldn’t say that American fans should get patriotic and start falling in behind the likes of Mayweather or Deontay Wilder in a lockstep manner just because we’re they’re from. The fans should support whoever they please no matter where they’re from.
If Hearn would stop matching Brook against soft jobs, then maybe he’d get more support in the UK. Hearn needs to take the training wheels off of Brook and realize he’s about to turn 30, and he’s been fighting as a pro for 12 years. You can make a strong argument that Brook’s best years are behind him now.
At this point, Brook might only have three to four good years left before he starts taking regular beatings at 147 or 154. Heck, we don’t know even know if Brook will make it through a fight against Errol Spence Jr. next year. I’m hoping Brook doesn’t get injured repeatedly when he’s signed to fight Spence, and then the fight winds up never happening like Brook’s scheduled fights against Diego Chaves and Devon Alexander in the past.
The good news for Hearn is that one of his fighters may get a lot of support in Anthony Joshua. If he beats IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin in their fight on April 9. If Joshua wins that fight, then he’s going to get massive fan support from the British public. You can understand why the fans would support Joshua. He will have defeated a very good fighter in Martin. But in the case of Brook, it’s hard to get excited about the guy with Hearn matching him against guys like Frankie Gavin, Kevin Bizier, Jo Jo Dan, Alfaro Robles, Vyacheslav Senchenko and Matthew Hatton. If Hearn had started matching Brook against high caliber opposition five years ago, then I think he would have a ton of support.
Comments are closed.