Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn sits down while Stateside to discuss a number of topics including Bam Rodriguez, Xander Zayas vs Boots Ennis, and the fact that a deal for Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua may now need to be looked at contractually, once more, should Turki Alalshikh not find a way to stage the fight inside the United Kingdom. Check out some excerpts of what Hearn had to say with the full video interview at the top.
On Bam Rodriguez’s progress
“I think everybody’s now giving Bam all the credit in the world now for his
ability and his achievements, but I think one thing not talked about enough is his age. It seems like when you reach that P4P greatness, you do it at kind of not the end of your career but as you’re coming into the the final chapters. Bam’s just getting started, he’s not even halfway through his book. And at 26 years of age I just seem him getting better and better and better.
“And there’s been a lot of talk of Naoya Inoue and of course we all understand that young undefeated pound-for-pound great champions against one another in their prime is exactly what boxing needs. In AJ vs Fury, you have the biggest fight in boxing. In Bam vs Inoue you have something very close but you have a pure-boxers fan’s fight.
“There’s been a lot of talk but there’s been no talk to us [about making that fight]…probably our focus is to unify the division in November, December, unless we actually do get approached or get a call. Because at the moment it’s just talk.”
On how he rates Boots
“For me, he’s a top three, certainly top five, pound-for-pound guy now. But he doesn’t deserve to be there because he hasn’t beaten anybody on the pound-for-pound list. Now, Stanionis was like a top 15 guy who was the #1 welterweight in the world at the time, and Boots beat him, became the lineal champ or whatever you want to call it, he was the guy at 147. Great. But this is the fight that puts Boots on the pound-f0r-pound list.
“That’s my only thing with Inoue. A lot of those guys haven’t beaten guys off the pound-for-pound list and it’s difficult to do it because sometimes they’re not on the pound-for-pound list, but for Jaron to be where he needs to be on that list he has to beat Zayas, he has to beat Fundora, has to fight Josh Kelly, and has to fight all the champions, Vergil Ortiz. And if he goes through those guys he’ll be pound-for-pound #1.”
On Joshua vs Fury
“The reality is the fight’s not decided in terms of where it will take place, despite people saying they know where it is, etc. I’ve said it so many times…Under our contract the fight has to take place in the UK. When we negotiated that contract it was our absolute intention to give the British fight fans the biggest fight ever in British boxing.
“Now, there’s other things in that contract as well that’s been very well documented. Now listen, if people want to change the venue, we’d be a little disappointed if I’m honest, and I think it’s a little disappoint for British fight fans, but also at the same time, we want the fight to happen.
“If all the sudden Turki Alalshikh wants the fight to happen in the US, of course we’ll have those conversations. The contract will have to be renegotiated, which I’m not saying can’t be done…But we signed with the understanding and the terms of that contract that the fight will be taking place in the UK.
“We don’t want to be obstructive, we want to be of help, but contracts will need to be renegotiated [if it’s to be staged outside the UK].”
