Following last night’s event headlined by Hitchens vs. Lemos, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn spent time talking to media members about a number of future fight topics, including Devin Haney vs. Teofimo Lopez, Canelo vs. Benavidez, Claressa Shields vs. Alycia Baumgardner and Subriel Matias vs. Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz.
Read on for Hearns’ thoughts on these fronts and his hopes that the PBC will be willing to work with him to make some fights happen.
Find out if Devin Haney has contacted him about reuniting with Subriel Matias
“Devin, he just wants to fight for all the belts. So I know he’s going to fight all these guys, I know what he’s like. But I like that he wants to chase belts. I mean, indigent Sandor Martin, everyone gives him a stick, but he’s a good fighter. But sometimes you have to go through these mandatory defense mechanisms, but for financial reasons it’s not something you’re used to.
On whether it’s hard to go from promoting substantial stars Canelo to performing in smaller venues for Hitchins and Pacheco
“No, because it’s all part of the journey. We just did Joshua vs. Ngannou in Saudi Arabia, Taylor vs. Catterall is coming up, we sold 11,000 for that. tickets. We have a Fury vs Usyk fight coming up which we are involved in, we have three fighters on the card, Haney vs Garcia in a few weeks.
“When you do a show every week, not everyone is going to be a hit, but you have to invest in the talent that is emerging. Diego (Pacheco) had some problems today. I thought he won, but he needs to improve if he’s going to dominate the division, which is what we’re building him to do.
“But I think it’s really not just about the glowing lights, it’s about the content. I thought tonight was a good performance and a great main event.
On the prospects of the Claressa Shields vs. Alycia Baumgardner fight
“I think it’s a great fight. I mean, wow, who wouldn’t watch that? But it’s just the right size. I mean, look, Alycia is the undisputed champion at 130 pounds and Claressa weighs 160 pounds, 168. She fights at 154 pounds, she would have to come down. I thought they were talking about 147, she said 154, so I don’t know.
“I don’t think Claressa Shields has many fights ahead of her. I mean, who else can he really fight? So she’s really going to enjoy this fight, but she’s going to have to – for this fight to be fair, she has to be in an uncomfortable place because she’s huge compared to Alycia. She’s a much bigger woman.
“So you have to make it uncomfortable. You can’t just set the scale to the way it makes it effortless, and Alycia has to weigh 147 pounds and eat to get there, and she gives up 8 pounds, or 15-16 pounds a day. So she must choose the lowest rate she can go, and Alycia must decide whether she is up to the challenge.
[Claressa Shields would later walk past Hearn and he would ask he the lowest weight she can do to make a Baumgardner fight, to which she responded 154. So, don’t hold your breath]
On the potential of Canelo vs. Benavidez
“I mean, it’s not happening right now, but who knows what will happen. I think Canelo decided to put his number out there and it was a substantial number, whether it was his actual number or not, why not? He tells the world, “If you want it, you have to pay for it.” There’s a lot of money for substantial fights at the moment, it’s too much in my opinion, but who knows how close they can get.
“But David was here tonight and he looked like he was having a great time [smirks]and he is a hell of a warrior.”
On his desire to fight Subriel Matias vs. Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz
“If you look at the Canelo vs Mungia fight, you’ll see it on Amazon, but it’s also on DAZN. I think there’s no reason – if Subriel Matias beats Liam Paro, which is a really good fight, I think we should pit Pitbull against Matias in a unification fight with PBC. And I’m going to… I’m going to go to Luis De Cubas, because he’s my buddy, hopefully he’s going to go to Al Haymon and say, “Do you want to do this fight?”
“Because you have a ready-made model, it can be available on Prime, it can also be distributed on DAZN, you have Mexico against Puerto Rico in unification – it’s a hell of a fight. So effortless to make.”
About the fight between Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney
“Yes, but Teofimo wants about $15, $20 million for these kinds of fights.”
That there are obstacles to having unification fights at 140 pounds
“Only if someone wants to overcome the obstacle. What you saw Ryan and Devin do, which is the same thing you saw Ryan and Tank do, was all the money was in the pot and we agreed to split it and then we split the money. So if Teofimo tells Devin Haney, “50/50 union, we keep the money,” the fight is over… I think the fight is over.
“But in that respect, you don’t utilize the guarantee and that’s why Ryan made so much money in the Tank fight because instead of taking the purse, he went on the show. Sometimes it doesn’t work out so well, but if it’s a substantial fight, as Teo says, it’s your money… and I would do the same with Matias vs Pitbull, let the fighters split the money, we’ll do something PBC fights, some Matchroom fights, maybe we fight between each other. We have a lot of fights to fight, I wonder if Mr. Haymon will agree to this. It would be great for boxing.”
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