Among the biggest challenges Eddie Hearn expects to encounter while constructing a post-pandemic schedule is convincing some boxers to accept difficult fights.
The British promoter anticipates a faction of fighters pushing for tune-up fights before accepting more imposing opponents. Hearn thinks there should be less of those types of fights following the COVID-19 crisis because promoters and broadcasters must present more appealing content for fans who will have an abundance of live sports to watch when leagues throughout the world begin playing again.
“We do need to get tougher with fighters,” Hearn told Chris Mannix for the most recent episode of Sports Illustrated’s boxing podcast. “We do need to try and eradicate the warm-up fight, you know, and the easy fight for big money. And we’ve got to try and be a little bit tougher and go back to them now and say – and the managers and everybody understands it’s not gonna be easy. Everybody’s gonna feel the squeeze a little bit, especially until we get back into the arenas, where we can fill ‘em up.”
Through his company’s partnership with DAZN, Hearn has often overpaid boxers for lesser bouts because the fledgling streaming service paid what it considered necessary purses to lure established and, in some cases, popular fighters away from competing networks in the United States as it tried to make a quick impact in the boxing industry. That practice can’t continue, according to Hearn, in damaged economies where subscribers will want more entertainment value for their money.
“A big problem that all sports are going to have now is the competition, in terms of coming back, and particularly scheduling,” Hearn explained. “You know, if you look at the UK, when we come back in July, we’re going to be bumping into the Premier League football. They’re talking about playing three games a day. You know, you’ve got cricket, all these other sports are creating almost like these isolated environments, with live content coming all day for different sports. So, that’s something where we’ve got to be creative. That also means we have to create the best fights, the best schedule that we can.
“And that’s why when I talk about the easy fights, and the fights that might not be so compelling, it’s really time to give those the big elbow and say, ‘I’m sorry. That’s not gonna happen.’ You know? And that might not be what fighters – not really fighters, but particularly advisers or managers want to hear – but it’s the reality of the situation. So, if you want to take an easier fight or you don’t want to step up and be in a fight that subscribers and the boxing fans want to see, you can wait. Do you know what I mean?”
Hearn thinks that approach will enable boxing, though completely fragmented, to operate like UFC in some cases.
“I feel like we’re moving more, a little bit more towards the UFC model now,” Hearn said, “where it’s going to be, ‘Right. Here’s our schedule. You, you’re fighting him. Oh, I’m not sure about that. OK, no worries. You can wait. Who’s up? You and you, you in? Yeah, I’m ready. They’re up.’ You know? Rather than, ‘Oh, how about this opponent? No, you know, me and my team, we’d like these guys.’ And in the past, we might’ve been too weak to say [no]. But we can’t afford to do that anymore because of the competition, like you just said, not just with other networks in boxing and other promoters, but other sports. So, we’ve got to come back with a schedule that boxing fans and sport fans look at and go, ‘Like it.’ We can’t afford weak fights anymore.
“You know, and that’s one thing that I’m trying to get my head around. I don’t wanna bring boxing back with weak fights. You know, over here they’re saying, ‘You just can’t do a big fight without a crowd.’ Alright, well let’s try. Let’s try and do a big fight without a crowd. You know, UFC just did it. You know, I know it wasn’t the biggest fight they’ve ever done. But it was a big card. So, I feel like if we return with boxing and we rush it back with poor-level content and bad quality fights, it’s gonna do ourselves more damage in the long run, especially against the bigger sports.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.