Eddie Hearn dangles a tasty Prizefighter carrot in front of Aaron McKenna
Eddie Hearn has dangled the world title carrot in front of Aaron McKenna before Prizefighter gloves off on Monday.
The Monaghan middle finally gets an opportunity to showcase his burgeoning talent when he contests a revamped version of the star-making tournament over the coming months.
On the line for the eight contestants is a prize pot of $1,000,000, although Hearn suggests there is a lot more at stake.
The Matchroom fighter, who used the quick-fire version of Prizefighter to get a foothold in boxing, is backing the new format to bathe the winner in stardust.
The Essex fighter claims the winner will become a boxing name and thus be in line for a world title shot.
“Whoever comes out of this tournament as the winner of this can look at themselves going into a World Title shot off the back of this,” he said.
“There’s a lot of opportunities in the Middleweight division. Whoever comes through this, it’s a big brand to come through the back of. Bring PrizeFighter Champion, they’ll come through and there will be opportunities for a World Championship, so it’s not just about the money, it’s about the future and what they can secure moving forwards.”
Irish fight followers will be aware of the tournament’s ability to enhance the careers of its winners. It did so for the likes of inaugural winner Martin Rogan, Wille Casey and Jono Carroll.
The format is different this time around, as it plays out over three-fight nights but the effect should be the same and the financial reward all the bigger, says Hearn.
“PrizeFighter was a huge part of our business and why boxing, I think, got back to where it was in the UK especially. It’s something that we wanted to push for a long time. We’ve been looking at bringing PrizeFighter back, but this is just PrizeFighter reimagined in a much bigger version with a lot more money; luckily for these guys, there’s a lot more money than there used to be! I think the first prize back in the day was £32,000. It’s gone up to $1,000,000 for the winner of this whole tournament.
“Obviously back then it was a knockout tournament all on one night, this is over three nights, ten and twelve round fights. I think it’s exactly what we need to do to keep growing boxing globally as well. This is going to be something we’re looking to push around the world, not just in Japan. Japan is an important market for us now but around the world we’re going to recreate many nights like this with the PrizeFighter series.
