Promoter Eddie Hearn insists Chris Eubank Jr. is the only person to blame for why one of the most intriguing bouts in British boxing may never happen.

Last week, it was revealed that long-gestated talks between Eubank Jr. and Hearn’s client, Conor Benn, finally fell through, with both sides deciding to go their separate ways.

Eubank and Benn, sons of British boxing greats, have been joined at the hip for nearly the past two years. The two were originally scheduled to fight last year, in October, but those plans went awry after Benn was revealed to have tested positive twice for the banned performance-enhancing drug clomifene.

Efforts to stage the fight never stopped, even though Benn has repeatedly failed to resolve his illicit standing with the British Boxing Board of Control, without whose approval Benn cannot legally box in his homeland. Benn is currently at a standoff with the Board over their appeal to the lifting of his suspension in the summer.

Hearn, who was trying to push Eubank vs. Benn for Feb. 3 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, said that Eubank’s incessant demands for an exorbitant purse was what killed the deal. Specifically, Hearn said Eubank wanted a guaranteed purse that incorporated potential pay-per-view upside and that, for the promoter, was a nonstarter.

“[Eubank] pulls a number out of the sky, and I’m just like, how?” Hearn said on the Boxing with Chris Mannix Podcast. “‘Well, you said it was the biggest fight in the history of British boxing.’ ‘Mate, I’m a promoter, what do you want me to say? That it’s not that big of a fight?’ I mean it is a big fight, but a lot of the time, on pay-per-view upside, you need to back yourself. If you think that (it can succeed), then no problem. You’ll actually hit your number.

“But we can’t put guarantees in for numbers that we won’t hit. We know it’s a huge pay-per-view but you can’t just have a conversation where you say, ‘It does a million buys.’ Does it? If it does a million buys, congratulations, you’re actually going to get more than your number. ‘So surely if you back yourself to do a million, we’re in, alright?’ ‘Oh, no you got to pay me up front for the million buys.’ ‘How?’ I don’t want to do a fight where I lose three or four million dollars. What’s the point of that?"

Hearn warned that Eubank was now likely headed for a insignificant bout against an obscure opponent for a paltry payday compared to what he would have received for the Benn fight.

Indeed, Eubank has already lashed out at his own promoter, Kalle Sauerland, for trying to make a fight with an opponent he has no interest in facing.

"Conor signed, Kalle was all in, and Chris Eubank Jr. wasn’t," Hearn said. "It’s so frustrating. I’m saying, ‘What are you going to do.’ ‘What do you mean? I’ve got loads of options.’ ‘No you haven’t!’

“He’s going to end up taking a fight for a quarter of what we offered him against maybe the IBO champion at middleweight. It’s Ego, stupidity, a lack of common sense. But mostly it’s someone in your ear who is a complete clown and has no idea of what they’re talking about. Welcome to the world of boxing.”