Eddie Hearn has defended Matchroom’s record in winning purse bids for their fighters.
Later on Thursday the promoter will bid to win the rights to stage the IBF lightweight title fight between the champion Raymond Muratalla and their talented challenger Andy Cruz.
They will do so, however, off the back of recently being outbid for Subriel Matias-Dalton Smith at a time when there exists a growing perception among observers of the sport about what they consider to be Matchroom’s failings on behalf of the fighters they represent.
Hearn, ultimately, maintains that he is comfortable with that perception on the grounds of his priority being that Matchroom Boxing functions without losing vast sums of money.
He is also adamant that Cuba’s Cruz is capable of defeating Muratalla without the advantages that come with being promoted by the same promoter of the relevant fight.
“If you look at the Dalton Smith bid, that’s the perfect example,” he told BoxingScene. “We made a massive bid there – $1.7m. That’s a huge amount of money for that [junior-welterweight] fight – a huge amount of money for that fight.
“But Fresh Productions in Puerto Rico bids $1.9m. Have they done a deal with Subriel Matias? Or is that what Subriel Matias is really getting? If they are, they could lose $1m on that show. I ain’t gonna lose $1m on that show. That’s not the right business. We’ve continuously backed Dalton Smith, and at $1.7m or whatever we bid, we probably would have lost money. But it’s okay because we were going for home advantage for Dalton Smith. We made that investment; we get the belt and we go.
“By the way, in the mean time, that extra $200,000 for Dalton Smith – it’s not the end of the world. That fight was scheduled to take place in Puerto Rico; now they’ve moved it to the Barclays Center [in New York] on January 10.
“Will the fight even happen? It’s very easy to put the money on a piece of paper. It’s another thing rolling the dice for real and losing $1m in cold blood and paying the bills after. Now you’re going to Barclays Center on January 10 for Dalton Smith against Subriel Matias [an Englishman versus a Puerto Rican]. Good luck.”
The reality that Top Rank, the promoters of the 28-year-old Muratalla, are yet to secure a new broadcaster following the conclusion of their agreement with ESPN means that considerable uncertainty surrounds their future and therefore whether they will bid ambitiously in an attempt to secure his first title defence.
Hearn, regardless, is wary of what he considers to be the risk of Muratalla vacating that title instead of fighting the 30-year-old Cruz after, according to the promoter, refusing greater money to fight on the undercard of David Benavidez-Anthony Yarde on November 22.
“We’ve got a really good relationship with Top Rank at the moment,” said Hearn. “We’ve been making a lot of fights. This fight, we actually agreed a deal for the fight with Turki [Alalshikh] for November 22nd. But Muratalla couldn’t agree his end, which is gonna be painful in the purse bid because the number’s gonna be a lot smaller than it was with the Riyadh Season offer. I just hope Muratalla doesn’t vacate the belt. It’s a really, really, really good fight, and Muratalla’s actually a very underrated fighter. He’s a very good fighter, and Andy Cruz has only had a handful of fights, but he’s also very, very good.
“It’s difficult, because we’re the challenger, so you’re automatically on the small end, which lends itself for the other end to do a deal with their fighter where they can make sure they win it. Obviously Top Rank are in discussions with broadcasters so whether they have the dates ready to go for a fight like that, I don’t know. But we’ll find out.
“We’ll be bidding, but as always, we’ll be bidding the right number for that fight. Sometimes we lose and it’s like ‘Matchroom have lost the bid’ – I don’t mind losing a bid. I always want to back our guys, but we’re not just gonna bleed money on a show. Andy Cruz can win that fight on a Top Rank show or a Matchroom show, or a Riyadh Season show. But we’d love to promote it.”
