By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn sounds increasingly bitter, reacting with anger at fans’ criticism of his plans for a soft tune-up for Anthony Joshua to prepare him for a December mega-millions clash against Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder.
Hearn wants to match Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs) against the faded 35-year-old Dillian Whyte, who has looked something awful in his fights in the last three years, losing two of them by knockouts.
Not surprisingly, fans have criticized Hearn’s plans for Joshua to fight Dillian or another similar soft job, as they at least want to get value for their money, considering they’re the ones that will be asked to pay to watch AJ fight on PPV in the UK.
Instead of Hearn seeing things from the fan’s point of view, he’s chosen to turn on them, saying, “Who gives a f**K” about what they say about Joshua. It’s a sad comment from a promoter who fails to recognize that the fans are the ones that turned Joshua into a star.
Hearn’s comment shows how disconnected he is from the populace, as he’s fabulously wealthy, living the life of a grand king. So it’s easy for him to say, “f**K” the fans if they don’t like the fodder he tosses in the ring for Joshua to massacre on PPV to keep the money pouring in by the bucketful.
“Dillian Whyte is a fight that we’ve looked at. If we get the Wilder fight, do we still fight Dillian Whyte? Maybe. I don’t expect if we sign for the Wilder fight; I don’t expect AJ to fight a top three or four guy. I think he’ll take a top ten top 15 guy again and prepare himself for the Deontay Wilder fight,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV.
‘Who gives a f**k? What you’ve achieved, what he’s [Joshua] achieved, who gives a f**k about grief? You want to receive grief from some bloke on Twitter. You have to back yourself in life. You have to look back at what you’ve achieved.
“When you’ve been a two-time heavyweight champion and when you’ve won an Olympic gold, when you’ve made hundreds of millions, when you’ve changed your life, when you’ve changed people’s lives around you when you’ve changed your family’s life, are you really at the point of your career where you want to worry about being criticized for taking a fight that you feel is the correct development for a fight that is a couple of months later, which is one of the biggest fights in the sport in heavyweight history?
“F**k everybody, and that is the position that AJ has to be in his career. Selfish, don’t worry about the criticism. It’s just like when he fought Jermain Franklin. ‘Ah, he was too. He should have gone in there and done this.’ No, no, no.
“He should have gone in there and won; won as many rounds as possible. He should have been a little more aggressive, but don’t worry about it. All he cares about is winning.
“If he went in there against Deontay Wilder and boxed his head off for twelve rounds and people thought it was boring, who cares? That’s where he is in his career right now. He wants to win the big fights and wants to become the heavyweight world champion.
“He’ll do it in the way that he feels is most effective. Now, he’s not going to go in against Deontay Wilder and try and outbox him. He’s going to try and knock him out but with a brain. But you can’t worry about criticism from people.
“I’m not saying that we should disregard fans and opinion, but really, don’t you feel that some people have achieved enough?” said Hearn.
