Joker Eddie Hearn Still Holds All the Aces

In the boxing ring, power can regularly be determined as the force behind a boxer’s punch.

Both unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and super middleweight Callum
Smith are seen as some of the biggest punchers in boxing. Not only do they effectively have the most power, behind the scenes they are backed by a completely different kind of boxing power.

Eddie Hearn’s meteoric rise in boxing has yielded untold success for Matchroom Boxing, who have managed to more than double their revenue to £70.5 million in just ten years.

Whilst his business acumen has increased Matchroom’s profitability, its reputation has come under criticism from a large section of boxing fans. All of Eddie’s bravado and swagger is reminiscent of Gotham’s Bruce Wayne but behind this façade, is he the Joker just looking after number one?

You have to admire Eddie as a salesman and appreciate how his new brand of accessible, well-marketed conveyer-belt boxing matches has managed to captivate the casual boxing fan, but the current Sky hype machine currently consists of too many largely mismatched fights. Barry and Eddie Hearn are no fools; they know that a fighter with a name and a perfect or near-perfect record are the most profitable and they also know how to protect this. Matchroom’s deal with Sky is without a shadow of a doubt the smartest move they could have made, as it means Sky will show 20 of Matchroom’s fights per year, allowing the Hearns to keep their fighters ticking over without really having to risk any damaged reputations.

Ricky Hatton is one high profile name who has recently been critical of Matchroom for
protecting their fighters, giving Hatton’s Lucas Browne an offer to fight on the undercard of Joshua vs Takam only seven weeks out. Another example of ‘protecting’ their fighters can be seen across a number of big names. Prior to the Klitschko fight, Anthony Joshua’s last three opponents consisted of Eric Molina, Dominic Breazeale, Charles Martin, all of whom he dispatched without even breaking a sweat.

The same can be said for Kell Brook, whose last three fights prior to his mismatch defeat to Gennady Golovkin consisted of Kevin Bizier, Frankie Gavin and Ionut Dan Ion. Now, whilst AJ and Brook’s step up in class of opposition has provided polar opposite outcomes, particularly with the latest betting odds putting AJ as 1/3 favourite to beat Wilder or 8/13 to beat Fury, this kind of nothing fight must be something that Katie Taylor should be wary of.

Just over a year on from signing for Matchroom Boxing, Taylor has an impressive seven fights under her newly acquired WBA world female lightweight title, but has yet to be tested against top quality opposition.

After her bout against the WBA mandatory challenger, Taylor must ensure that she continues to increase the quality of opposition to ensure that her career does not become defined as another one of Eddie Hearns cash cows.