In this video interview, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn talks about his position between Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh, who is basically financing the biggest fights in boxing lately, and Mexican star Canelo Alvarez, who is not interested in continuing negotiations with Alalshikh at the moment.

While there is clearly some tension between the parties, Hearn doesn’t think it’s something that can’t be overcome in the end, and tries to explain the difference in the two people’s thinking.

About the beef between Canelo and Turki Alashikh

“It’s hard because obviously I really like both. I think, first of all, His Excellency has one thing in mind: to fight the biggest fights that can be fought in boxing. I think he probably shares the frustration of boxing fans over the last few years and I think what he brings to the sport is incredibly refreshing in that he’s not interested in delicate fights.

“He just wants to fight the biggest fights that can be fought. So, according to His Excellency, the fights he wants to see are Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez vs. David Benavidez.

“He contacted me, His Excellency, on the evening of the first press conference in Novel York and said, ‘I want to do the Canelo vs. Crawford fight, go and talk to Saul, let’s do the fight.’ I said, “Okay,” and I contacted Saul and said, “His Excellency wants to fight this fight. I think you should go see him in Los Angeles, he’s there,” and Saul just said, “Listen, I’m focused on this fight, I’m not talking about another fight until this fight is over.

“And I think His Excellency probably can’t understand… I think it’s a frustration of, ‘no, let’s have a fight, come on.’ You have to understand the way it works, and the way they do business is amazing. It’s “this is what we want to do, this is huge, let’s do it.” And for one reason or another, Canelo didn’t want to have those conversations, and then there was the frustration of “why not, we’re here, we can make a deal right now”… you come to the hotel now and we’ll make a deal tonight.

“It’s an amazing way to operate and extremely refreshing for boxing, but Canelo didn’t want to do the deal this way. He wanted to wait until the Berlanga fight, which, frustratingly for His Excellency, wipes out the February fight with Crawford because he wants to end the fight now.”

Chris Eubank Jr still claims his goal is to face Canelo Alvarez, who is currently scheduled to face Edgar Belanga on September 14. Eubank Jr tells Sky Sports that he believes he and Canelo could fight in May 2025, while he is seemingly still haggling with Canelo’s team over his share of the revenue.

However, Eubank Jr sees that Canelo is not very deep, so he believes he will still be in a good negotiating position.

“A lot of people are not ecstatic with the fight he chose. Canelo can only fight a certain group of fighters right now, so I’m not worried that this fight in September will end in failure. Because who else can he fight? There are only a few guys.

Eubank Jr is also considering a potential confrontation with Terence Crawford, with whom he shares a coach – Brian McIntyre. Even though Eubank Jr states that it’s not a good thought that McIntyre would obviously go with Crawford in such a situation, and gives inside information, he is still confident that he will win because he doesn’t think Crawford has enough strength to beat him.

“We have a trainer who trains both of us and if a fight happens, he will fight a guy he came up with, so he will share the information. It’s not worth thinking about. But I’m very confident. I think it’s too diminutive.”

While Eubank Jr tells the public about these huge plans and ideas, it is worth noting that he has often mentioned many huge names that he would like to fight, but for one reason or another, these fights never materialized.

Eddie Hearn sat down this morning to talk softball with his crew at Matchroom headquartersand although he contributed very little substance, he did give us one piece of intriguing information. While it’s not finalized yet, Hearn says he’s “working strenuous” to finalize the Bright Edwards vs. Galal Yafai fight and hopes to announce the decision “soon.”

Edwards (21-1, 4 KO) bounced back from last year’s loss to Jesse Rodriguez by technical decision over Adrian Curiel in June, putting him in prime position to return to title contention and establish a up-to-date reign over the… Bama Era. He will be the top-rated challenger to Angel Ayala Lardizabala when the IBF updates its rankings, and will also be near the top for the winner of Kenshiro Teraji vs. Cristofer Rosales.

That said, it is very understandable that he will face Yafai (7-0, 5 KO) first. The gold medalist from Tokyo is already 31 years venerable and has over ten years of professional and amateur experience; there’s no reason to let this continue to marinate, especially since (as Hearn notes) they have some bad blood in them. It’s an effortless sell, with Britain’s most skillful professional taking on one of its most accomplished amateurs.

Whether it will be good to watch is a completely different question. This is intriguing, at least on a conceptual level.