By Charles Brun: Matchroom Boxing chief Eddie Hearn is vowing that his company will eventually become the powerhouse in the sport and on the same level as UFC in dominating the way they do.

For Hearn to realize his dream, he will need to continue to promote superstars Anthony Joshua and Canelo Alvarez. Without those two fighters, Hearn’s vision of Matchroom Boxing being at the top of the sport has no chance of happening.

Ultimately, it may prove to be impossible for Hearn’s Matchroom company to follow the UFC blueprint to dominate boxing in the way he wants.

It would require a bigger stable of talented fighters for Hearn, Matchroom’s own ranking system, and much better match-making. UFC makes a lot of great fights that the fans to see.

As John D Rockefeller discovered, it’s not easy to create and maintain a monopoly. Hearn has got his work cut out for him if he’s following the UFC patch to create a monopoly in boxing.

It’s going to prove to be tougher for Hearn to follow that way of match-making with his company because it would require making risky fights.

“We are the global force. There’s no one else touching what we are doing or even making a charge globally. We are set to become the UFC of boxing, and it’s only a matter of time,” said Hearn to Boxing News.

To truly rival UFC, Hearn may need to make these changes:

Create Matchroom’s own rankings: The only dominate the sport in the way that UFC does, Hearn needs to create Matchroom’s own rankings and ignore/marginalize the ABC governing bodies [IBF, WBA, WBC, and WBO]. Being a company organization, UFC has its own rankings. As such, for Matchroom to follow the UFC blueprint in global domination, Hearn must create their own rankings and have his fighters ONLY follow those rankings in creating fights.
Keep things in-house with Matchroom fighters: To lure more fighters over to Matchroom, Hearn will need only to match his fighters against each other and not with other promoters’ fighters. UFC only matches its fighters against each other, which has helped build its brand. If Hearn wants Matchroom to be viewed as #1, he’s got to keep the fights exclusively in-house against each other.
Make better fights: Matchroom will need to make more compelling fights if they’re to follow the UFC model. That’s no mismatches like we saw this weekend between IBF/WBA super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev and Ryosuke Iwasa. It’s got to be the best against the best. That goes for Canelo Alvarez as well. Canelo must face better opposition than Billy Joe Saunders, Avni Yildirim, and Caleb Plant. Hearn would need to insist Canelo fight the opposition the fans want to see him against in David Benavidez, Artur Beterbiev, Jermall Charlo, Gennadiy Golovkin Dimitry Bivol. Would Canelo agree to any of those fights? Probably not. He would likely jump ship and hurriedly flee from Matchroom if Hearn insisted that he fight those guys.
Lure PBC, Top Rank, and Mayweather Promotions fighters over to Matchroom Boxing: To get the monopoly that Hearn wants for the company to become UFC-esque, he’s got to lure the elite-level fighters from Top Rank, PBC, and Mayweather Promotions to Matchroom. Hearn needs to sign their fighters like Teofimo Lopez, Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia, Deontay Wilder, Errol Spence Jr, and Terence Crawford. Unfortunately, that’ll be easier said than done.