Eddie Hearn: What Became of the Likely Lad ?

Has he turned into the promotional version of Al Haymon? Great for his boxers bank rolls, but ultimately, only interested in a monopoly of the market we love: boxing.

Let me begin at the beginning.

I like Eddie Hearn. I believe he wants to promote British boxing and build stars. However, the man also sells us mutton dressed as lamb (cliche but true), has extremely limited matchmaking experience, lacks development of fighter skills, and delivers some very bad undercards.

Also, signing up the J Warrington's and B Saunders of this world are fine, he wants to take boxing to new parts of the UK, and I do too, but, the headline is often backed up with comeback fights or international bouts, not 50-50s. It's vulgar. You can only put on world class 'productions' with sell out crowds if you have a fight that justifies the hype, otherwise it's all a facade, surely?

The Bellew card failed because it had world class hype, promotion, crowds and build up, but NEVER one world class fight. And these Groves fights and Smith fights, what are they really? showcases. Never ending showcases. Also, he needs to match diminishing stars like Burns with Campbell Soup. Real promoters do that, that's an intriguing fight. Rebuilding Rose and Burns and Mitchell when they are cooked is: vulgar. He even admitted he didn't like having two mates go at it, well, you have the stable, so have to. You owe it to the fans to be more cut throat with these mediocre has beens. It be better than watching them fight 20 and 2 Argies who are 'tough as nails' but ultimately, cab drivers.

2015 is a big year for Hearn. I like him, but if he delivers an O2 card with nothing exciting but AJ vs Johnson, I'll gun for him. I don't care if it isn't PPV. We deserve a card that is 50/50. Fielding v Smith, Rose v Rabchenko, Mitchell v someone from outside cansville, he has the stable, now he needs to produce the goods.

Thoughts.

I love Eddie and want his babies

Dude i like the man too, but he's matesy as anything these days and mugging us off with poor poor fights. when Bellew and Clev spoke up Millenium Stadium he did nothing to stop them. That in millenium stadium...

The guy needs to put his men in with each other, a loss is not the end, Warren (god forbid me praising this guy) proved that. People want to see where Eubank JR will go now more than ever. A great card regardless of the fights, he put it all on the line, and will again in Feb.

On a more serious note it's a business. Are you going to throw say AJ in with a Stiverne? Of course not. But then matchmaking him up against someone he wins against but wins but does so in a fashion that enhances his reputation and status is nigh impossible. The average fan is going to expect to see this big hope blast people out/walk all over them, it's business that they all get 18-0 padded records before a promoter starts upping their level of opponent. If they then lose a few there's no way back and then they become the sacrificial lamb to the slaughter 3 years down the line against the stables new hotshot fighter in that division in a "Young kid vs the experienced pro" kinda 19-0 sort of level of fight.

It's business, give us a ton of money and in my case lots of brainpower and we'd be doing pretty much the same!

Interesting thread and I sympathise with it...But your problem is not with this "Businessman" but the 200k buyers of Clev-Bellew who have told him with their wallets that a card like that is acceptable..

I want to see big fights but I'm not naive enough to think that If I had his assets I'd be risking them willy-nilly

Have to force him in to risking his assets by declining his product...Recent history shows Boxing fans aren't prepared to do that..

So who can blame Hearn for staying with the minimum risk..maximum reward strategy !!

I liked Hearn at first, but he is really starting to bother me. He did give us Froch v Groves 2, a great event no matter how much you want to say otherwise, but his matchmaking of late is worrying.

I feel like he is a world class promoter and a bog standard matchmaker. He also seems to have too many fighters for his dates, hence the 10 fight snoozefest PPV.

Why does Quigg have to fight 4 times in 12 months against nobodies? Isn't 3 enough?


He needs to match his fighters together more, or in 50-50 fights. We just want entertaining fights, hard-to-call-fights or quality match-ups. Mix those three and we are happy, aren't we?

Will see what he does in 2015, and hopefully he will see respond to all the criticism he is rightly getting. Time will tell.

Valid points but I'm more concerned with how he brings on fighters with minimal fan bases and restricted ability.

He flogged Burns to death, and now wont risk him. Why?

Send Quigg to America and put him in with Cruz. Just do it.

Also, Scotty cardle, he's got 10 fights and what the hell is he doing. He's like egg mayo, complete filler.

Paul Smith v Ab's, who cares? Really that fight stank. Now he chases another? wtf?

DDGO2 wrote:Send Quigg to America and put him in with Cruz. Just do it.

Also, Scotty cardle, he's got 10 fights and what the hell is he doing. He's like egg mayo, complete filler.

Paul Smith v Ab's, who cares? Really that fight stank. Now he chases another? wtf?  

Cheer up at least Strongy won't think you're a troll !!

Smith v Abraham is good managing !!...Who else is Smith going to beat for a World title..

Can't criticise him for that.

TRUSS it's a nothing fight for a nothing title no one respects. The limited journeyman v the past it world champ. And, it was boring first time round.

It's everything to the fighters Mate...

It's what they have toiled for years for..

Devalued yes...But it isn't nothing !!

To fans though TRUSS, it's a who cares fight?

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Smith v Abraham is good managing !!...Who else is Smith going to beat for a World title..

Can't criticise him for that.

Was an away fight and meant nothing to Hearn financially.

Smith gave a good account of himself, others placed in the same situation by Hearn have not,

I didn't see the post fight interview but I believe Hearn basically said he had no interest in promoting Macklin as he had just been beaten.

he doesn't do passing of the torch fights, it's a joke.

He's stuffing up John Ryder and the boy can fight.

Speaking for the fans now are you Mate..

Not a great fight but I'll be interested..

TRUSS I am a fan!

So am I......and whilst I loathe the plethora of titles on offer..If one is up for grabs I'm interested...Even If it's a casual interest..

Because a belt still has value even If it's of minor value..

Am going to put a different spin on it in that it's also an issue with falling participation numbers compared to say 40 years ago - the top 20s of divisions were more stacked than they are are nowadays. It's become harder and harder to continually point on fights that fans want to see, more so between fighters they've heard of.

The advent of Sky/PPV hasn't helped either. Only a small fraction of fighters in the UK have had any sort of exposure due to not being on terrestrial, that most people outside of the core boxing fanbase haven't heard of them.

Much like F1 was though 40 years ago when cars were winning races by several minutes (the nostalgic lot hark back to when you could make a car in your shed to turn up to race in etc) boxing fans are just as ignorant when thinking that it's always been one great show after another. When I used to frequent the York Hall back in my youth I went something like 6 boxing shows without seeing a decent fight, 15 years ago guys were still rolling over for their paycheck and not alot has changed.

99% of 18-0 fighters have fought patsies, it takes a crystal ball in matchmaking to set a guy up that the public/TV companies genuinely believe to be a live threat and an even money fight when the promoter knows he's gonna have a few tricky rounds before pulling away when everyone then jumps on the "what a masterclass" bandwagon.

Not every fighter is Ricky Hatton and gets the golden ticket of Kostya Tszyu and then Castillo come along one after the other.

Valid points there, good stuff, good insight.

the WBO SM belt is a farce. Not since the 90s have i respected how it changed hands.

Look everyone on here will be watching Smith v AA including you !!!!

The WBO are a farce in general. The WBC deserves to have their doors shut and the building burnt down. With employees inside I might add.

The big glimmer of hope is that Top Rank/Goldenboy are poised to begin working together. So from the American shows point of view we could have some crackers next year. Hearn would do no worse than to align himself with those two and do co-promoted cards (getting some decent talent over here) both here and in America.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Look everyone on here will be watching Smith v AA including you !!!!

Truss I'm that excited it'll involve some mid round...

Strongback wrote:I didn't see the post fight interview but I believe Hearn basically said he had no interest in promoting Macklin as he had just been beaten.

Macklin needs to retire......While he still has his faculties...Good honest pro.

Hearn got Ryder the WBO Intercontinental breakfast belt in October which has seen him creep in to the top ten in the world so he is hardly "stuffing" him up is he?

As Truss says, people can dump on fights all they want and say how bad they are, yet they still end up watching them so they obviously have interest in them.

hampo171 wrote:Intercontinental breakfast belt

hampo171 wrote:Hearn got Ryder the WBO Intercontinental breakfast belt in October which has seen him creep in to the top ten in the world so he is hardly "stuffing" him up is he?

As Truss says, people can dump on fights all they want and say how bad they are, yet they still end up watching them so they obviously have interest in them.

I am not sure I agree with this, although I get your the point you are trying to make.

So we can't ask for better fights if we watch the bad ones?

If the only football people in England could watch was non-league they would still watch it. Does that mean they aren't entitled to bemoan the loss of top class PL games.

I'm not saying that, but as I've mentioned before, why moan for 6 months about a fight only to then tune in and watch it anyway? I don't like The Only Way Is Essex, but I'm not going to watch it so I can talk about it in the TV section of the forum

I moaned my backside off about the PPV two weeks ago. I would never encourage anybody to pay for it, either. But I do expect people to tune into a regular Matchroom card on Sky Sports because they love boxing and have subscribed to Sky. You don't watch TOWIE because you never liked it in the first place. Bad boxing cards/fights are like waiting for your fav band to release an album, only to find out it is a bit rubbish. You will prob keep buying their records, but you lower your expectation. Not the same thing.

Jamie McDonnell has fought a couple of poor opponents but the long term plan was to set him up for a unification fight with Koki Kameda something that is now happening. Hearn's main priority is the boxers he promotes, they all get paid on time, get decent pay days and have a clear career path to even higher earnings if they keep on winning.

The same was true of Brook, was in endless eliminators but then goes over to America and beats the highly regarded Shawn Porter, if Khan is willing that will be a big fight over here.

As for the Paul Smith argument it's a load of tosh, Smith got a once in a lifetime opportunity he probably didn't deserve but who exactly would you rather have seen him face, another domestic nobody?

The moment the Matchroom stable start complaining about their situations or late/non payment then i'll get on Eddie's back but until then I have the choice to watch the fights or not.

Another point you made about not wanting to pit friends against each other but aren't Luke Campbell and Tommy Coyle set to face off next year, now that is a fight i'm looking forward to. While Crolla has faced pretty much every domestic lightweight there is going often in exciting give and take fights and now has a world title shot against Abril.

Josh Warrington went from being unheard of to being the European, British and Commonwealth champion in the space of four fights, not sure what more Hearn could have done with him thus far.

The Bellew and Cleverly PPV was a joke but the joke is on the 200, 000 people who paid for it, the market was there so it got exploited, only an idiot would turn down that £3.5mil windfall, on the back of which i'm sure all his fighters got paid bang on time.

Some good points there, Hammersmith

Missed a couple Sean so updated it.

Who exactly would Carl Froch be without Eddie Hearn? Just another British boxer stuck on primetime TV fighting for peanuts without the recognition he's now getting.

Also how much has Degale's stock risen in his past two fights promoted by Hearn? A hell of a lot because he looked fantastic beating two tricky opponents who were expected to cause him trouble.

With the exception of Ricky Burns you'll be hard pushed to find a boxer who hasn't seen their career progress since they signed for Matchroom.

Well, I give credit to Froch for his success. All Hearn had to do was stick him on Sky and give him Bute. Hennessey had him in some great match ups, he just lacked a channel.

DeGale has done great, but you could argue that Hearn has done him a little bit of a disservice by having him on PPV cards and not mainstream Sky where he would have gained more exposure. Again, DeGale was with Hennessey when his career went down the tube. He was pretty well known under Warren.

I don't blame Hearn for Burns. Burns just reached his potential. You are kind of judging all of these on the fighters winning or losing, tbh.

Degale was winning before switched Sean but the matchmaking has been much improved and putting him on the PPV cards probably does a lot for his confidence, giving him a foundation for development.

You say put him on Sky and give him Bute as if that was easy which I can guarantee it was not, having him fighting in England was imperative for his overall success. Hennessey had him in good fights but a few of them were in America during the middle of the night, getting him Bute, Kessler and a domestic dust up with Groves one after another was brilliant matchmaking (Mack thrown in the middle).

I am just presenting the other argument. Froch took short money for Bute and Bute desperately needed a fight to make his reign credible. Remember that most thought Froch would be badly beaten in that one.

DeGale has been better matched, absolutely. And he was sinking under Hennessey. But he was a household name 3years ago when he fought Groves. His is more a re-emergence.

Like I said earlier, Hearn is an excellent promoter. Growing the sport and Wembley fight and all of that. But his matchmaking can sometimes leave a lot to be desired. That PPV card was dull, and lacked competitive fights. 10 fights is way too many, even for boxing fans, and especially when all but 2 were almost dead certs, and dull.

Just so you know, I was a Hearn fan. I still like him (as far as promoters go), I just get on his case because I think he has the stable and the platform to deliver really good fights, at all levels. I appreciate every card can't be a winner. The Warren card at the weekend didn't turn out as exciting as we had hoped, but they were 50-50 fights so can't complain.

Joshua v Johnson is a great test.
Campbell v Coyle is great, too.


Hearn is #1 at the mo, so he is bound to take some knocks from the likes of me.

Most of the hard work was done for Hearn when he got into the game. Any half assed promoter could make a good fist of it if Sky provided the backing.

Hearn hasnt done anything special other than have Sky there supporting and arriving when Warren and Haye had run the boxing into the ground.

Hearn is more in touch with the fans which makes him a better manipulator even if his tricks of the trade are so transparent only morons should fall for them - many do anyway because he engages fans and provides them with half truths.

Warren is an old school promoter whos philosophy is basically the less fans know the better and the easier it is to bs them. In todays world where anyone with a laptop and access to boxrec is a self styled expert it Warrens style doesnt of trying to keep fans in the dark doesnt work. Hearn using twitter to engage fans and appearing to treat them with a smeblance of intelligence has worked worders for him - even though the end game is still pretty much to spereate them from their money.

Warren looks to be struggling big time but Hearn hasnt done anything special and the stronger his position gets the less beneficial it has been for the fans. His cards are very ordinary for a promoter with a big stable and almost exclusive Sky backing. He got in a good time though, when boxing on Sky couldnt get much worse.

Hearn got a little lucky with Smith Abraham. A collection of 115-113 scorecards, and everyone goes home thinking, "Jeez, Abraham is really past it. At least Smith fought well", instead the cards read near shutout, and Hearn can take the righteous path in demanding a home comforts rematch.

You can understand why he doesn't risk his fighters until the odds are heavily stacked though. Boxing isn't UFC. Fighters need to seem invincible. Ronda Rousey nearly lost her first PPV UFC fight to a fighter with a 14-5 record before roaring back to win, and is still probably the biggest draw in MMA. Could you imagine the forum if any of the bums Joshua has been fed went life and death with him?

Jeeze you saying AJ shouldn't even be fighting living humans? What do you want Hearn to do, sling in a corpse? AJ is more pampered than a victoria secrets models fun box.

Shock horror a fighter with only 10 fights under his belt isn't being thrown in against the best in the division, disgraceful that he's not fighting Wlad next.

Well, that's a bit dramatic, no one is saying he should do that.

However, if one is going to headline the O2 then one should at least fight an opponent who has one, just one attribute that could lose him the fight. What has KJ got that is genuinely a test for AJ. Even if he goes 12 he loses, his output and power is non existent. Call that a development fight or a marketing ploy? 'No one took on KJ in their 11th!' 'no one stopped KJ!' 'KJ was a veteran, a world level challenger!' I could be a world level challenger, doesn't mean I'd win or even come close. Challenge is a blimming loose term with KJ. Elite bum is a phrase I prefer. Who has he even beat???

Do you struggle to comprehend what a developmental fight is?

No but you do, it's a name to you isn't it? A spotlight, a headline and a name. Development to you seems to be PR driven not boxing driven.

Again you're talking nonsense, in his 11th pro fight he is taking somebody on who in theory should take him into the later rounds, if the fight ends early then AJ can quite clearly punch. The name of Johnson means sod all but his defensive skills and durability do.

What the hell does it matter if he goes fifty rounds with this guy? I mean KJ will run all night and throw nothing, what does that teach AJ? It isn't real if he isn't having to work. KJ makes no one work at any level remotely above can. How can you think this is going to test AJ? You say development, but other than being able to walk forward for 15 minutes instead of the usual 6 or so, I see no development. He actually needs to be pressured over six rounds IMO. That is far better than following a fat American for eight or nine until he realizes that AJ can tag him and then falls. KJ will manufacture his own demise and take minimum punishment so to get another young 'star' a year later.

I like AJ a lot, but this is smoke and mirrors, Eddie is loving this BS. All about the sell at the moment, the guys in danger of forgetting who made him, the people.

At which point have I said it's going to test AJ, going a few round will teach him how to conserve his energy for the later rounds.

He wont have to use any mate, come on, what is KJ going to make him do? Breathing does not count.

AJ goes in all guns blazing in almost all of his fights, as with Price he needs to learn what to do when the other guy doesn't fall over straight away, what part of that are you struggling with?

I LOVE AJ by the way, the guys a beast, it's Eddie I am annoyed at right now. We should get him on here.