Hearn had initially planned to have Klitschko v Fury and Brook’s IBF welterweight title defence staged on October 24 in one massive event on Sky Box Office, although admitted in his Daily Mail column that keeping ‘The Special One’ on PPV was unworkable.
“Without Fury-Klitschko, I was left with just over three weeks to add another major fight to the card – It felt like I had been punched in the kidney and then kicked in the proverbials. Not my best day at work,” said Hearn.
“In this case a deal was struck that enables Kell to fight before a mass crowd on Sky Sports 1 and live with US giant Showtime against Diego Chaves. It is absolutely the right thing. I am convinced this will be the hardest fight of his career and it is important that he has it now rather than pushing it back.”
Hearn also stated that keeping Brook fighting this month would keep the door open for a potential clash with Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas this spring after talks for the Filipino to fight rival Amir Khan broke down recently.
“What happens next is exciting. I can say here that there have been a couple of questions in the background about Manny Pacquiao, who still hasn’t decided who he wants to fight next. We would obviously take that fight,” he outlined.
“Likewise, Amir Khan will always be the big one for Kell and there’s also the possibility of Tim Bradley and a move up to fight Saul Alvarez – something that there has also been enquiries about. I still see that switch to light-middleweight coming two or three fights from now.
“First things first, he has to deal with Chaves. That will be a seriously tough fight,” added Hearn.
