Hearn signs Oleksandr Usyk to promotional deal

By Boxing News - 09/07/2018 - Comments

Image: Hearn signs Oleksandr Usyk to promotional deal

By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has inked cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk to a co-promotional deal with the hopes of turning the 31-year-old 2012 Olympic gold medalist into a star. It’s unclear whether Hearn is wasting his time signing Usyk because he’s getting up there in age at 31, and his fighting style isn’t an exciting one.

I don’t want to drizzle on Hearn’s parade and ruin his vision, but I don’t think signing Usyk is going to be the great shot in the arm that he needs to make DAZN a success in the United States. Hearn is going to need a much bigger name than this for him to interest the casual boxing fans. Signing Usyk, a pure boxer, is a sign that Hearn has a tin ear when it comes to understanding what the American fans want to see. I mean, Usyk’s fighting style is the complete opposite of that of foreign fighters Gennady Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez. A good American promoter like Bob Arum would have been able to tell Hearn that he’s making the wrong move in signing Usyk. If Hearn wants to interest American boxing fans, he needs another Canelo or GGG type of fighter, not someone that is going to box his way to a boring 12 round decision like we saw in Usyk’s recent win over Murat Gassiev in the final of the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament. That fight was like watching paint dry in the afternoon sun. Talk about boring.

Hearn signed Usyk to a 3-fight deal just like he signed heavyweight Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz to a short three-fight deal a few years ago. Hearn didn’t keep Ortiz when his contract expired with himn, and it’s likely that he won’t keep Usyk either if he fails to bring in the huge ratings and tons of new subscriptions for his DAZN deal.

With the signing of Usyk, Hearn will start slowly building him up to make him a big enough name to interest the UK and American boxing fans to want to pay to see him fight IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in the future. Even though Usyk has cemented himself as the best fighter in the cruiserweight division in recently unifying the division, he’s not popular in the UK or in the U.S. As such, Hearn is going to have a lot of work to do try and turn Usyk into a big name in the UK and U.S for boxing fans to want to pay to see him fight.

Usyk might not ever be popular. He’s not a knockout puncher like middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, so that’ll make it extremely difficult to turn him into a star. Usyk isn’t going to become a huge star by boxing his way to decisions like we’ve been seeing. Moreover, the cruiserweight division isn’t a popular one in the U.S or the UK. Usyk will need to move up to heavyweight as soon as possible if he wants to have any chance of becoming a star.

The first move that Hearn wants to make is to match Usyk (15-0, 11 KOs) against Matchroom stable fighter Tony Bellew (30-2-1, 20 KOs) later this year on November 10 in the UK. Hearn is working on negotiating the Usyk-Bellew. Hearn plans on having the Usyk vs. Bellew fight televised on Sky Sports Box Office PPV, and streamed on DAZN in the U.S. However, signing Usyk won’t do much in terms of attracting American boxing fans into paying $10 per month to subscribe to DAZN in order to see him fight. Usyk is not a well-known fighter in the eyes of the casual boxing fans. Usyk’s recent victory over IBF/WBA cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev in the final of the World Boxing Super Series tournament wasn’t seen by the American fans, because the tourney wasn’t televised in America.

Usyk hasn’t been seen by American fan, so Hearn is signing a fighter that is still very much an unknown. Hearn has an uphill climb in trying to turn Usyk into a big enough name to get U.S fans to want to subscribe to DAZN in order to see him fight. Bellew vs. Usyk will not likely attract American fans to want to subscribe to DAZN to see the fight. Bellew, 35, is just as much an unknown as Usyk is with the American fans, and the fans that do know the British fighter see him mostly as a former WBC cruiserweight paper champion.

“I’m thrilled that K2 Promotions will be working with Matchroom Boxing moving forward to secure me the biggest fights out there,” Usyk said to skysports.com. “Fans can look forward to watching me take on the biggest and best names…A fight with Tony Bellew would be a momentous occasion, he is a good boxer and a good person and I also have the option to move into the heavyweight division.”

Bellew vs. Usyk will sell in the UK, but that match won’t interest fans in the U.S if Hearn puts it on DAZN. It takes a long time to build a star in the U.S and UK, and it requires a fighter that has an exciting fighting style. The foreign fighters that have become stars in the U.S are knockout punchers that have exciting fighting styles. These are the foreign fighters that have won over U.S boxing fans over the years:

Lennox Lewis

Gennady Golovkin

Manny Pacquiao

Saul Canelo Alvarez

Miguel Cotto

Roberto Duran

Salvador Sanchez

Julio Cesar Chavez

Usyk doesn’t fight like those guys. He’s more of a pure boxer than a slugger. Besides fighting with an exciting style, it also requires the foreign fighter to compete in the country that he’s trying to become a star. So in other words, if Hearn wants Usyk to become a star in the U.S, he’s going to need to have him fighting over there, because it’s not going to work if he’s fighting in the UK and his fights are piped into the U.S during the early afternoons.