Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn continued to talk to Boxing Social and other reporters Saturday Feb. 22 about losing prizefighter Conor Benn to upstart promotional rival Zuffa Boxing.
The move stunned the sport when Zuffa confirmed the bombshell signing Friday, with UFC boss Dana White lauding the British slugger as “an absolute beast.” Hearn mourned the loss in his first interview to iFL TV, and conceded his own “mistake” led to Zuffa’s ability to lure Benn so easily to the Las Vegas-based events firm. The move is the latest escalation on the war of words between Hearn and White, who laughed off the signing by twisting the knife into Eddie, telling him to “stop crying.”
Time, for Hearn at least, is a great healer.
The established promoter said he gets frequent communications from Anthony Joshua and Johnny Fisher about other people wanting to sign them to fights, and that he’s aware of it directly from the fighters themselves who message him “within a couple of minutes.”
He said he simply wanted the conversation with Benn, that he’d been presented with a “mad offer” so they could jointly “present it to DAZN.”
If Matchroom and DAZN “can’t get anywhere near [Zuffa’s proposal] you’ll have to seriously consider taking this offer,” he said he’d have told Benn, if that were a scenario to transpire. “I felt like I deserved a call [from Benn], rather than an email from a lawyer.”
He then turned on those who say the move shows a part of boardroom boxing may be “scripted,” by saying: “What do you mean it’s f****** scripted?! Oh, yeah — great script. Mug me off. There’s no script about it. This is what happened. I knew about this on Friday.”
Hearn said a strange benefit has been the unwavering support he’s received from the boxing community with 200 different people sending him messages.
“It’s like someone’s passed away.”
Hearn continued: “Conor’s sole principle is money, and I don’t begrudge that, at all. Some people want legacy, some want money. I’d like a mix of both.”
For Benn, though, it was always a case of, Hearn said, “money now [as] he just wants to rack it up.”
When asked for his take on the one-fight deal, Hearn remarked that he thought that was “a red herring.”
And whether Benn competes in Zuffa colors for one bout, or boxes beyond that, remains to be seen, but Hearn said he’d work with White on a fight.
“He could fight Josh Kelly,” Hearn said. “154 might be the weight class Conor Benn migrates to. Conor Benn against Josh Kelly at The Stadium of Light — 50,000.”
But Hearn doubts that bout happens. “Conor’s a big star,” he said. “He’s looking at Ryan Garcia.”
Watch Boxing Social’s footage of the Hearn presser here, as he talked to the channel, and other media, moments after Leigh Wood’s rematch repeat over Josh Warrington.
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