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.”

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.

In September, Danny Garcia will face Erislandy Lara. In his 14th fight in Las Vegas, Garcia takes some time to talk about the past two years off, why he doesn’t expect much rest in the ring, and why this fight was the right one for him at this point in his career. Check out some of what he had to say below.

Garcia on why he doesn’t believe the long layoff will affect him in the ring

“I was inactive, but I always focused on the game. I’m always watching boxing, I’m always training, I’m always giving advice to youthful guys, I’m always a mentor, so I feel like even sometimes when you’re not energetic, but your head is in the game and you’re still following the sport, you’re still learning, you’re still participating in it.

“As far as being inactive, it wasn’t by choice. Boxing changed when Showtime stopped doing boxing, so I just had to sit back and wait my turn, and that’s what it was.

If he sees something in Lara that will make him want this fight

“I definitely feel like I can beat him, I know I can beat him. I feel like I could beat anyone if my mind is 100% and I’m physically ready. But I felt it was an effortless fight to finish. I want to be world champion in three divisions and I didn’t want to wait years for politics to get in the way or something… At that point it could have been anyone, but he was the perfect person at 160 years ancient who was a champion that no one really knew he came to fight at 160 pounds, so who better than Danny Garcia. So I felt like the fight made sense.”

How his counter-attacking style fits someone like Lara

“You can definitely counter a counter attacker. You just need to have the right technique, know when to throw, when to pull him in, when to give him something to react and then you can come back. There are definitely ways to counter the guy who’s waiting, but the most crucial thing for me in this fight is just being myself. Get in there, have fun, get out first, don’t wait, try not to make a lot of mistakes because he’s the type of player that if you make mistakes, he’ll try to make you pay for it.

“He’s a crafty guy, he sticks to the game plan, he doesn’t take any risks, so I’ve got to go in there and fight shrewd, take the punches and just keep winning round by round.”