By Jack Tiernan: Eddie Hearn is predicting Chris Eubank Jr vs. Conor Benn does one million PPV buys on DAZN and Virgin for Saturday’s fight on October 8th at the O2 Arena in London.
Hearn believes that Eubank Jr-Benn will be hugely successful, the biggest fight he’s ever been involved in. If Hearn is right, the fight could bring in one million buys, as he says.
It certainly got off to a great start at the kick-off press conference when Eubank Jr wound Benn up, telling him that he was going to school him.
Besides the PPV numbers, Hearn revealed that the rehydration number was ten pounds for the morning of the fight. The secondary weigh-in will occur at 11:00 A.M. on Saturday morning, which will give both fighters a lot of time to rehydrate before the fight in the evening.
“I think it can do one million buys. I mean, you’ve seen the deal announced with DAZN and Virgin,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV. “It’s also available to Virgin customers, which increases the reach drastically. I think it can do one million buys.
“I think it’s absolutely huge across DAZN and Virgin, which is the pay-per-view. It’s not like, ‘Now, he’s including other numbers. How big is that fight?
“It’s massive. Even on Matchroom’s YouTube channel. Well over a million for the face-to-face numbers. The BBC documentary on Wednesday. This fight is huge.
“I don’t believe he’s eating it. Maybe I’m wrong,” said Hearn about Eubank Jr about the junk food that he’s been seen eating. “I’m not sure he’s eating the entire burger or the entire cake. If he is, fair play to him, and if he makes 157, fair play to him.
“I just feel like he’s trolling, and he’s doing a great job. You have to understand that the similarities in the ring are also replicated outside of the ring.
“Junior is a posturing sort of teasing, whatever you want to call it. Conor is just this fired up. They’re their father’s sons, and they just blend and mix so beautifully. Like at the press conference, like the head-to-head, the face-off.
“It’s brilliant to watch. You’ve got one guy winding the other young, fierce lion up, and he’s [Eubank Jr] just baiting him, just prodding him.
“That’s what you’re seeing. All this stuff across social media. I think when it first started, Conor did come, ‘Did you see that? Did you see Eubank eating that burger?’ Because Conor is fired up, and Eubank will want to wind Conor up, because he’ll want Conor to make a mistake. He’ll want him to be reckless in there.
“Conor has to be aggressive but disciplined. I think the two work beautifully together.
“No, but I’ve said in many interviews it’s around the same weight as the IBF check-weight,” said Hearn when asked what is the rehydration limit for the fight.
“Around the same original number. They’ve actually increased that number now. But the original number. Around ten pounds, the rehydration. It’s very safe.
“It’s around ten pounds. It’s fair; it’s really hair. You’ve got a kid coming up from 147 to 157, and you’ve got a kid coming down from 160 to 157.
“They can hydrate overnight. The hydration is in the morning. It’s 11 ‘o’clock in the morning, and that’s the number. Then you have the whole day.
“You’ve still got another 12 hours, 11 hours before the fight. Huge media coverage. I’m expecting an unbelievable build-up. I’m expecting an unbelievable expectation. I’m expecting an unbelievable show.
“I’m expecting huge pay-per-view numbers. I’m expecting a great fight, a great undercard, and just an epic event,” said Hearn.
