Tweet
Hearn on Arum’s comments that he ‘doesn’t know ****’ about promoting in the U.S.:
“I spoke to my dad about it today...he’s always told me ‘when you shake [Arum’s] hand make sure you count your fingers after.’ That’s the first thing he told me. And the second thing he told me was...’[the reason he’s saying you need to learn from me] is because I never invaded his space. I was never a threat to him.’ So what I am is a big threat to Bob, but I have so much respect for him as a promoter — and as a man at 87 years old I find it hard to fire back at him too much.
“Being around Bob the other day at the press conference, I learned a lot. I’ve been in the American market for 6 months, and he’s been in the American market for, I don’t know, 40 years. So he’s probably right, I probably do know **** about promoting in America compared to him. But you can’t just come here in 6 months and expect to know the world. I mean if you want to get ultra critical of Bob, I think his shows lately have been absolutely dreadful.
“Like when was the last major fight card that Top Rank put on? I’m talking about major fight card...It’s been a long time. I mean last week the put on a Bulgarian against a Romanian on ESPN. It was the lowest rated audience since ESPN’s return to boxing. Right? So when you talk about ESPN and what it does and Lomachenko, he’s ‘Picasso’ — they haven’t sold the tickets at the Staples Center. No one’s talking about the fight. So these are the things that I should be saying back to him but I don’t wanna start — I genuinely have a lot of respect for Bob Arum. I’m actually quite honored that he’s even talking about me as much as he is.
“One thing I have to correct him on — he talks about...’Joshua’s got to leave Hearn, leave DAZN.’ Joshua is not with DAZN. He has a fight by fight deal I believe his future will be with DAZN, but at the moment we’re being very careful to make sure that those career-defining fights are available to Joshua without network obstruction. And I will make sure that is the case. And the same can’t be said about Tyson Fury.
“I actually think Bob’s under a lot of pressure from ESPN, and also the UFC, because the UFC are driving all the numbers on ESPN+, not Bob Arum. And actually he’s under pressure because he doesn’t have any big fights for Tyson Fury...”
“I spoke to my dad about it today...he’s always told me ‘when you shake [Arum’s] hand make sure you count your fingers after.’ That’s the first thing he told me. And the second thing he told me was...’[the reason he’s saying you need to learn from me] is because I never invaded his space. I was never a threat to him.’ So what I am is a big threat to Bob, but I have so much respect for him as a promoter — and as a man at 87 years old I find it hard to fire back at him too much.
“Being around Bob the other day at the press conference, I learned a lot. I’ve been in the American market for 6 months, and he’s been in the American market for, I don’t know, 40 years. So he’s probably right, I probably do know **** about promoting in America compared to him. But you can’t just come here in 6 months and expect to know the world. I mean if you want to get ultra critical of Bob, I think his shows lately have been absolutely dreadful.
“Like when was the last major fight card that Top Rank put on? I’m talking about major fight card...It’s been a long time. I mean last week the put on a Bulgarian against a Romanian on ESPN. It was the lowest rated audience since ESPN’s return to boxing. Right? So when you talk about ESPN and what it does and Lomachenko, he’s ‘Picasso’ — they haven’t sold the tickets at the Staples Center. No one’s talking about the fight. So these are the things that I should be saying back to him but I don’t wanna start — I genuinely have a lot of respect for Bob Arum. I’m actually quite honored that he’s even talking about me as much as he is.
“One thing I have to correct him on — he talks about...’Joshua’s got to leave Hearn, leave DAZN.’ Joshua is not with DAZN. He has a fight by fight deal I believe his future will be with DAZN, but at the moment we’re being very careful to make sure that those career-defining fights are available to Joshua without network obstruction. And I will make sure that is the case. And the same can’t be said about Tyson Fury.
“I actually think Bob’s under a lot of pressure from ESPN, and also the UFC, because the UFC are driving all the numbers on ESPN+, not Bob Arum. And actually he’s under pressure because he doesn’t have any big fights for Tyson Fury...”
Comment