Hearn Putting A Lot Of Faith In Joshua

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After watching Callum Smith fighting last night I thought to myself what bracket does Hearn put the young Liverpudlian in. There's the marquee names like Froch and Joshua and then at the bottom of the pile theres the likes of Rose who was dispensable.

It's clear Froch cannot continue forever and with Eddie talking up Froch fighting twice more, once in Vegas and then DeGale, it might only be 12 months until the Cobra retires.

That leaves Eddie with the question 'Who will my next PPV star be?' Joshua is certainly getting the Rolls Royce and kid gloves treatment from Matchroom, its clear from the way Eddie talks about him that he has a few eggs in that basket. To contrast this I see Hearn putting Callum Smith out on the road until he loses or gets a title shot against a superior fighter.

What do people think? Is Joshua the real deal who will go on to unify the heavyweight division and  bring Eddie more cash than a Brinks security van can carry?

Does Smith fall along the way not fulfilling the potential his brothers think he has?

I see these fighters as receiving vastly different types of management and promotion. How do you see it?

Joshua is the Olympic champ so has earned his public recognition.  Smith is nowhere close in terms of public acclaim.

I'm going to put one out there and it goes like this: Joshua never wins a strap at heavyweight and despite the odds Calum Smith does.  Am I really that far off base?

Bruno gets very underrated. His era wasn’t the pile of p1ss that’s been around for the last decade.

i like joshua, stands to reason with the division he's in, the gold medal, the fact he can string a sentence together, his physique etc that he's a marketing dream.

He's a bit rigid and still takes a few too many shots, from guys he shouldn't really be taking them from, but if it turns out he has the whiskers (dropped in the amateurs but never sparked i believe?) then he could be boxing's next major star. I hope so.

If i were promoting him, he'd get most of my attention.

I think strongy is Eddie. It an elaborate ploy from the slickster to generate as much Eddie love as possible. 

Smart work Eddie/strongy, certainly worked on this board. I joined my local Eddie cult last Thursday evening, we reckon he's a brylcreem man, old school.

jimdig wrote:I think strongy is Eddie. It an elaborate ploy from the slickster to generate as much Eddie love as possible. 

Smart work Eddie/strongy, certainly worked on this board. I joined my local Eddie cult last Thursday evening, we reckon he's a brylcreem man, old school.

I reckon Eddie gets his hair cut a lot to keep the shape right thus requiring minimum product.


BTW I think Joshua headlined in his first fight which was in London from my memory.

Nah it's pure snake oil, (trust me I know.........(apparently)

How else would he be able to sell those awful shows to anyone

Agree with Strongaback about Froch Groves 1. I was one of those who called it a mismatch (spectacularly wrong as per always). Froch sold the first fight, Groves the second.

In terms of Joshua/Callum Smith, simply Smith's division is much deeper. He had a test on Saturday, you couldn't find a fight like that for Joshua. There are chasms in ability at heavyweight. I don't really see too many gatekeepers there, it's going to be a case of sink it swim.

No chance dipper, if Groves hadn't been the uppity smartaleck that he was it wouldn't have done half as good.

The second fight was a no brainer and really the only promo it needed was an advert every week stating unfinished business and it would have sold.

That's not the way I saw it DM to be honest. I went to Froch Kessler 2 and tried to get tickets for the first Groves fight thinking 'it's a Froch fight, why not?' many people were like me. We all know what happened after that

What you say may be true. Groves' mouth may have sold the PPV but Froch shifted the tickets

Froch was the main man definately, but I think what Groves did is underrated by many. He turned what was in many eye's a routine defence into a proper 'I've got to watch that, just in case' fight.

But either way we were given 2 cracking fights, which is a always a good thing.

Yeah true. If you told me George Groves would headline a card at Wembley stadium two years ago I would have been somewhat surprised, to say the least

As has been stated already on this thread Joshua needs to go in with a couple of well-seasoned hard-ass pros who can take a shot and give plenty of the rough stuff back. I fhe passes those tests, chuck him in for a Euro level fight. If he loses, he's written off as a another Price or Audley.

I agree with Trussy though. I think he will go all the way and pick up at least one strap. I think Wilder will have been found out by the time AJ gets in a position to fight the No1 contenders, so may not even be on the scene. Price, Chisora and Fury will not be good enough in a year's time.

I've always been a Groves fan but felt Froch 1 was a bit too soon, and how wrong I was. For me, Groves not only sold the first fight but he made eddies whole job a cakewalk. His disrespect to Froch in the first build up sold it to those who otherwise thought it was a Froch gimme. His performance on the night surprised everyone and justified a rematch, he then spent his own money petitioning the IBF in New York to mandate him again meaning Froch would have to vacate to avoid him, he then did all the Rubik's cube stuff to add a bit more intrigue. For me the second fight was a guaranteed big seller because of the performance of GG in and out of the ring from the day the first fight was signed. Eddie was the right man in the right place to put the pieces together - and you cannot deny the slickness and professionalism of MatchRoom when it comes to promoting a big event, they don't muck about, Hearn knows what he's doing and would never let such a golden opportunity slip through his fingers as Froch Groves II, but it was Groves that sold the fights.