By Charles Brun: Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn revealed today that he’s signed Sunny Edwards, Jack Catterall, and Shannon Ryan to his promotional stable.
With the fierce competition for Hearn’s Matchroom in the UK from other promotional companies, Eddie is looking to strengthen his appeal for DAZN, which many subscribers are bailing from due to the steep price hikes.
Adding these three won’t do much to keep subscribers from continuing to cancel with DAZN. This is like Hearn sticking his finger in a leaky dam, hoping to keep the water from pouring through. These signings won’t prevent people from canceling, unfortunately.
Without DAZN lowering their rates to what they previously were at and returning to the non-PPV model that Hearn had bragged about earlier, people will continue to bail in large numbers.
It’s questionable whether adding the 29-year-old Catterall (26-1, 13 KOs), flyweight Sunny Edwards (19-0, 4 KOs), and Shannon Ryan (4-0) will move the needle much in the UK to keep boxing fans from continuing to cancel their subscriptions to DAZN.
These three will be fine if Hearn matches them with care and keeps them away from talented opposition in their respective weight classes. Once you throw Catterall, Edwards, and Ryan in the deep end against quality fighters, the jig will be up.
Catterall will be utterly destroyed if he’s tossed into the ring by Hearn against Subriel Matias, Regis Prograis, Teofimo Lopez, Gary Antuanne Russell, Jose Ramirez, Liam Paro, Brandun Lee, Arnold Barboza, Richardson Hitchins, Jose Zepeda, and Sandor Martin.
Jack Catterall had his window
Catterall, 29, doesn’t figure to have a long shelf life in the 140-lb division, as the weight class has been inundated with talent, and there’s no way Jack can win a title. He had his chance to capture a world title a year ago when he lost to a weight-drained undisputed light welterweight champion Josh Taylor.
If and when Catterall does get another opportunity to fight for a world title, be it against the Taylor vs. Teofimo Lopez winner, IBF champion Subriel Matias or WBC champ Regis Prograis, he’s likely to get blown out of the water.
From there, Catterall will slip back into the ooze of obscurity from whence he came.
Sunny Edwards heading for disaster
Unfortunately, none of the three fighters Hearn inked today will interest American boxing fans. The best of the three is the diminutive IBF flyweight champion Sunny, 27, who fights in a weight class that isn’t popular.
While Sunny’s fights will interest the ultra-hardcore boxing fans, he won’t get the casual fans chomping at the bit wanting to sign up to DAZN in the UK just to see him fight on Matchroom’s stable.
Sunny will likely get destroyed when he faces WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez later this year. Martinez already made easy work of Sunny’s older brother Charlie Edwards in 2019, crushing him in three rounds.
Who can forget the way Martinez dropped Charlie with a firestorm of beautiful body shots and then added the coup de grace with a left to the midsection of the badly hurt fighter while he was down?
Given Martinez’s massive power and Sunny’s lack of pop in his punches, it’s easy to foresee him winding up like his brother Charlie in getting crushed by the mighty Mexican.
“I’m delighted to further strengthen Matchroom’s growing global of unrivaled talent with three exciting new additions,” said Eddie Hearn. “Sunny Edwards is one of the most naturally gifted boxers we have produced in the UK. Sunny can fight against WBC ruler Julio Cesar Martinez, or Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez is a must for 2023.
“Jack Catterall is another signing that we are massively excited about. Jack is itching to get back into the ring following a layoff, and there are some big fights to make for him in the competitive 140lbs division,” said Hearn.