‘We now have a Belfast show’ – Matchroom and Sky Sports to return to Belfast?

The Sky Sports camera could be heading back to Belfast teases Mark Dunlop.

The MHD Promoter took to Twitter today this afternoon and left a ‘we now have a Belfast show’comment dangling out there, sparking excitement among Irish fight fans in the process.

It’s unsure whether Dunlop was confirming plans for a show or whether he was stating the fighters under his umbrella now have the platform and fights required to tempt Eddie Hearn back to the fight capital of Ireland.

It could be possible Dunlop is using the fact James Tennyson cemented his status as a lightweight name with a British title win on the first installment of Fight Camp on Saturday night and the news Tommy McCarthy is guaranteed a European cruiserweight title fight next to make a point.

Dunlop, who has a close working relationship with Hearn, obviously believes both have the pull to fill the SSE Arena and could be in strong enough fights to figure high up a Belfast hosted Matchroom promoted Sky Sports broadcast card.

Delighted for @Tommymac90 been waiting patiently for ages. Big thanks to @EddieHearn we now have a Belfast Show…. pic.twitter.com/Uc5YBaUx5m

— Mark H Dunlop (@MARKHDUNLOP) August 4, 2020

Matchroom haven’t been to Belfast since 2017, when Eddie Hearn promoted Ryan Burnett’s WBA and IBF bantamweight unification fight against Zhanat Zhakiyanov.

There was rumour with regard to a NextGen show coming to the city, but that never materialized. Matchroom also promote Katie Taylor and Belfast could prove an avenue to get one of Ireland’s greatest ever fighters to fight on home soil for the first time as a pro.

If Dunlop, who also manages former British and European title challenger Paul Hyland, was making a plea rather than confirming show plans a victory for Eric Donovan over Zelfa Barrett live on Sky Sports come August 14 may strengthen his argument.

Regardless to whether a Matchroom show is in the pipeline James Tennyson has star man ambitions and plans to become a main attraction on the island.

“That’s the plan — that’s what I want to be doing, you know?” Tennyson said ahead of stopping Gavin Gwynne over the weekend.

“Being able to top bills in the SSE Arena. And I think with the platform of Matchroom and they progress we’re making, we’re going the right way about it, too. In the next few fights, if things clear up with Covid and everything, I think it’d be possible to achieve it, yeah,” he adds before expressing awareness of the opportunity he has to win new fans on the only show in town tonight.”