By Tris Dixon
Eddie Hearn made a brief stop by the WBC convention in Kiev today to make the case for his fighters at the mandatory contender meetings.
Who spoke on behalf of his heavyweight, Dillian Whyte, who sits behind Dominic Breazeale in the queue for the winner of the December 1 fight between champion Deontay Wilder and challenger Tyson Fury.
However, he is also ready for Wilder and Fury to possibly share the WBC title should there be a rematch, thus freezing Whyte out for longer and also blocking a unification fight with Anthony Joshua.
Hearn met with K2 Promotions and TV network Inter while in Kiev, but when asked whether he thought Wilder and Fury might try to keep the belt between themselves, he said, “Yes, of course.”
“Probably. I think Dillian needs to challenge Joshua. We’ve put our case into the WBC but ultimately Breazeale is going to be mandatory, but when is he going to be mandatory? If there’s a rematch of Wilder-Fury, they’d allow that as well. I think if Wilder wins there will ne no rematch, but if Fury wins there will be a rematch.”
Hearn said he has made contact with Wilder’s team, trying to open talks to get the long awaited Wilder-Joshua fight over the line.
“We made a new offer yesterday, an improved offer for the 13th of April which this time was a percentage offer, but we’ll see,” he continued. “We asked for a meeting at the beginning of October because my dad [Barry] was in New York and Shelley [Finkel] said no. It’s so frustrating because some people in the public say, ‘You’re ducking Wilder.’ We’re calling them saying can we have a meeting and Shelley will come back saying, ‘Well you don’t want the fight.’
‘Why am asking to meet you in New York? “I’m not doing it for a laugh.”
“He said, ‘Make an offer, and we can have a meeting.’ So I’ve done that, now hopefully we can have a meeting.”
After Hearn’s whistle-stop tour of Kiev, he is now heading back to America and preparing for his show in Chicago this weekend. And he has been watching the Fury-Wilder press conferences.
“I thought it was painful to watch yesterday [in New York],” he said. “There’s wasn’t anyone there, and also they’re backstage laughing and joking and then they come out and do all this, but regardless of the build-up, it’s a really good fight to find out who the second best heavyweight in the world is.”
