Eddie Hearn: Who wants to win the WBC Bridgerweight world championship?

By Boxing News - 11/11/2020 - Comments

By Allan Fox: Eddie Hearn doesn’t see any need for the new 224lb WBC Briderweight division revealed on Monday by the World Boxing Council. Hearn is predicting that the fighters won’t want to compete for the new Briderweight title.

He believes that if a fighter is in the 220-lb region, he’d rather move up to heavyweight to go after one of the titles.

Hearn uses the undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk as an example of a fighter moving up to heavyweight and finding success. Last week, Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) defeated the much bigger heavyweight Dereck Chisora by a 12 round decision.

Hearn says he doesn’t see anyone wanting to go after the WBC bridgerweight title. The fighters that will likely go after the WBC bridgerweight title will be the less talented guys that lack the size and ability to fight at heavyweight.

Image: Eddie Hearn: Who wants to win the WBC Bridgerweight world championship?

Bridgerweight title won’t be desirable

“Wouldn’t we have been better off having it the other way around from light heavyweight to cruiserweight?” said Hearn to Boxing Social on the WBC’s new ‘Bridgerweight” division.

“The problem is all the great cruiserweight, they’re not twelve stone eight. They’re right on the limit. I just feel that the Bridgerweight is where you’re going to get all the top cruiserweights.

“No disrespect but who wants to win the WBC Bridgerweight world championship? You don’t, do you? You want to win the historic WBC cruiserweight world championship.

‘But I guess everything has got to start somewhere. Once, cruiserweight wasn’t historic, was it?” said Hearn.

Initially, the fighters won’t be excited at winning the new Bridgerweight title, but that could change over time. If a popular fighter wins the Bridgerweight strap, we’ll get the herd mentality with many fighters going after the title.

If former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder moved down to 224 and fought for the Bridgerweight belt, he’d make the division popular.

Image: Eddie Hearn: Who wants to win the WBC Bridgerweight world championship?

Hearn wants the cruiserweight limit lowered to 190

“I’m not mad on it, to be honest with you,” continued Hearn about the new Bridgerweight division. “I preferred it the other way around. I feel like there’s a lot of light heavyweights right on the limit that just aren’t cruiserweight,” Hearn said about him preferring the cruiserweight division being lowered to 190 lbs rather than kept at 200 lbs.

“When the cruiserweight can’t compete with the heavyweight guys. Well, you just saw Oleksandr Usyk beat Dereck Chisora.

“You saw [Murat] Gassiev move up [to heavyweight]. As you go back over time, I know they’re extreme examples, but Holyfield and many other cruiserweights that have gone up.

“Actually, I think it’s the natural step for a cruiserweight to move up. Lawrence Okolie is fighting Krzysztof Glowacki for the world cruiserweight world championship.

“He’s got two more fights and then he’ll move up to the heavyweight division. And every cruiserweight wants to be a heavyweight. They just don’t want to be a bridgerweight. Maybe we could do the bridgerweight vs. the heavyweights?” said Hearn.

Image: Eddie Hearn: Who wants to win the WBC Bridgerweight world championship?

It’s not likely that the WBC will lower the Bridgerweight division because the president Mauricio Sulaiman feels it’s too big of a jump to go from cruiserweight at 200 lbs all the way up to the top of the division. A 200 lb fighter would need to bulk up in a hurry to compete against Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.