Eddie Hearn has named Filip Hrgovic, Demsey McKean, and Derek Chisora among the best heavyweight fighters in the world ahead of his upcoming London event.
In another ice-to-Eskimos moment for the promoter, Hearn assured fans they would witness some of the top 200-pound-plus contenders when they tune in on Saturday night.
Hearn is convinced, whether only publicly or not, that the Anthony Joshua undercard features the cream of heavyweight talent.
Eddie Hearn lauds the best heavyweight talent on AJ’s undercard
“It’s a night of Heavy Duty action at The O2 in London, with Anthony Joshua now facing ‘The Nordic Nightmare,’ 6ft 9in Robert Helenius,” said Hearn. “‘AJ’ looks to move on to some of the biggest fights in the division.
“The undercard is stacked with some of the world’s biggest, baddest, and best heavyweights, along with some of our youngest talent.
“We know the issues of the last few days. It’s never easy to think on your feet and adapt, but the instruction from Anthony Joshua was clear, ‘I’m ready to fight. I want to fight on Saturday.'”
Despite his claims about the undercard, Hearn admits that they had no choice but to pull the plug on Pay Per View attempts.
Non-PPV
“We have to thank our broadcast partner DAZN. The great news for subscribers is that this is no longer Pay-Per-View. This is unbelievable value for fight fans to be able to watch ‘AJ’ in a big fight with a great undercard.
“Thank you to them for their support, as AJ wanted to fight on Saturday. But all these undercard fighters have had long training camps too. As we all know, you only get paid when you fight.”
Looking at Hearn’s statement, it’s hard to garnish what kind of place it comes from, other than obviously bigging up his event. We’re also not sure if Gerald Washington is included in it. Let’s say he’s not.
But Hrgovic lost to Zhilei Zhang without a shadow of a doubt. The Croatian was given a gift of a decision one year ago on the Joshua vs Usyk undercard. The performance blew away any notion that Hrgovic could be a dominant ruler of the future.
Demsey McKean is untested and has fought nobody. At the same time, Derek Chisora should have retired three years ago.
Joshua vs Helenius
Nonetheless, the card is stacked with “the best heavyweights” as Joshua attempts to stay relevant against an opponent Deontay Wilder blitzed in 177 seconds. Heleinus also fought a week ago.
“It’s been a challenging few days,” added Hearn. “I want to thank ‘AJ,’ who stayed focused after putting twelve weeks of hard work into his camp.
“He was desperate to fight on Saturday night and showcase the hard work that took place.
“Thank you, Robert Helenius, who accepted the challenge. He has a good team of people around him we knew wouldn’t mess around.
“We knew he was fit and had just boxed. This is an important fight at The O2.”
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of experienced boxing writer Phil Jay.
