Eddie Hearn believes he’s “bigger than all” of the other promoters in the world after branching out his Matchroom Boxing stable to America.
The Essex man, son of Barry Hearn – who started the company from scratch – crossed the Atlantic when handed a pot of gold by DAZN.
Until then, Sky Sports had been loyal to Hearn when allowing Frank Warren, Ricky Hatton, and Maloney Promotions to move on. Sky focused solely on Hearn’s vision, only for the son of a millionaire to ditch them for DAZN years later.
Now, after four years of trying to build the DAZN brand, big fights are yet to unfold for Hearn. Only an on-off collaboration with Canelo Alvarez has come to fruition since the stateside move.
Despite this fact, Hearn says he is above Al Haymon, Bob Arum, and any other United States rival out there.
He told IFL TV: “I want to be remembered as the disrupter, really. Someone who went in and changed the sport.
“Not someone who went in and just complied with a couple of old people because that’s what you do [pulling faces].
“People want me not involved because they are worried about me growing or getting a leg up, coming into the US market. Rather than saying, ‘How much value can he bring to this?’
EDDIE HEARN – BIGGEST
“But my relationship with Top Rank is absolutely fine. I had calls with them today about fights. My relationship with PBC [Haymon] is quite poor, but they don’t want to make fights outside of their platforms [Showtime and FOX].
“I don’t really, but I will do, and you’ve seen me do that in the past. But, you know, I’m also bigger than all of them.
“So, maybe [pulling faces again], we just blow them out of the game – day by day?”
STREAMING
Considering Hearn has been in the sport for twelve years now and doesn’t have a TV network in the United States, he’s got some pretty big cojones.
His streaming service does cover a lot of the world. However, money-wise it won’t be making much outside of the most significant boxing territory.
That’s the silver donut. That’s where Eddie Hearn intends to be the top dog.
Is he there yet? – one hundred percent not. Without Canelo Alvarez – who he only helps to promote now and again, the stable he holds bares more questions than answers to his bold claims.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN us on Twitter @WorldBoxingNews.
