By Jake Donovan
For the second time in the span of three Saturdays, a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) card prominently featured notable talent from the United Kingdom. Two weeks after Jamie McDonnell picked up the biggest win of his career in his first ever fight in the United States, James ‘Chunky’ DeGale followed suit with a UK history-making super middleweight title win over Andre Dirrell this past weekend in Boston.
The win made DeGale the first ever Olympic Gold medalist from Great Britain to capture a major title, not at all a bad way to conclude his stateside debut. Less impressed with U.S. hospitality was former lightweight champ Ricky Burns, who—on the same show as McDonnell’s off-the-canvas win over Tomoki Kameda—came up short in an unpopular decision versus local favorite Omar Figueroa in their May 9 headliner in Hidalgo, Texas.
DeGale, McDonnell and Burns are all represented by Matchroom Boxing, the UK-based promotional outfit headed by Eddie Hearn. As PBC founder Al Haymon has regularly used the same group of promotional companies—DiBella Entertainment, Goossen Promotions, Warriors Boxing—the grouping of two major shows within the past couple of weeks raised speculation as to whether Matchroom Boxing was ready to join the movement.
While there’s the possibility of anything happening in the future, that is not at all in the immediate plans of the red-hot UK promotional outfit. What can happen down the road is for more business to be conducted between the two entities.
“We are open to making fights with anyone as long as it benefits our fighters, broadcast partners and the fans,” Hearn explained.
The two shows featuring the aforementioned fighters worked out perfectly for their fans back home. The Saturday afternoon live airing in the U.S. meant primetime viewing for UK fans watching on Sky Sports, rather than having to stay up through the wee hours of the morning to catch notable stateside action.
It’s a formula for success in terms of presenting a global product. With Haymon and Hearn boasting massive-sized stables, it makes perfect sense to continue to explore future business.
“We have made a number of big fights with PBC and have an open line to make more and more,” Hearn acknowledged. We share their vision in terms of making great fights (Burns vs. Figueroa, McDonnell vs. Kameda and Degale vs. Dirrell). “It’s exciting times for the sport all over the world.”
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox