By Victor Salazar
New York - Showtime Sports head Stephen Espinoza was an active participant in the social media world, when he and Matchroom Sports CEO Eddie Hearn engaged in a war of words regarding the Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KO’s)-Deontay Wilder (40-1, 39 KO’s) negotiations.
All of the fighting for the proposed bout has mostly been done through the media and social media instead of actually happening in the ring.
Espinoza let his Twitter hands go, but feels that maybe he should have backed away from engaging Hearn.
“In retrospect, I should have stayed out of it,” Espinoza told BoxingScene.com.
“It’s really hard to have a discussion with someone who has no regards for the truth. You want to hang your hat that you received a detail three page document with all the fight terms and you want to say it’s not a contract because it did not have a signature line? Ok point remains, they got a very detailed summary of all fight terms. Sky as broadcaster in UK and all the requirements of the fight. There was basically radio silence after that.”
Espinoza believes that both boxers want the fight but he doesn't share the same line of thought about Hearn. He feels the Matchroom Sport exec may not want the fight to happen in the present time.
“The point is Joshua was offered the biggest heavyweight purse in the sport and turned it down,” explained Espinoza.
“It made me wonder if Matchroom wants the fight to happen. I don’t wonder if Joshua wants the fight to happen. I believe if it was up to him, he would be in the ring immediately. I know for a fact Deontay Wilder would have already done the fight if it was up to him”
Espinoza believes the motives behind the delay is Matchroom’s commitment to streaming service DAZN.
“What we have here is the promoter’s objective isn’t the same as the fighters. If the motives is to build up a streaming platform or to live up to certain representation to other people, then you get in the way of the best fights. Hopefully that won’t be the case on the future," Espinoza said.
