THE race is on for Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing USA to sign high profile American fighters to headline on the US bills that will be streamed on DAZN as part of their landmark deal. The first American show is slated for September. No major names have been announced yet but Hearn is reaching agreements with eight fighters. โSome are world champions, some are undefeated fighters, some are amateur stars coming up,โ he points out. Meanwhile talks with the likes of Mikey Garcia and twin brothers Jermell and Jermall Charlo are ongoing.
Intriguingly Hearn is also keen to sign Julio Cesar Chavez Junior, the son of a Mexican legend who hasnโt boxed since his comprehensive loss to Canelo Alvarez last year. โChavez Juniorโs definitely in the mix,โ Hearn said. โWhen youโre hitting numbers itโs not always about these elite, hard core guys.
โHe hits huge numbers, and he can fight. Thereโs a guy you can get a run behind, start doing some big shows in LA with and then you stick him in with an 168lbs world champion and you have a huge fight doing huge numbers and huge subscriptions to a Hispanic market. So Chavez is definitely of interest to us. There arenโt many fighters weโre not speaking to. You canโt have a promoter, weโre not interested in litigation and mess and breaking contracts. Weโre dealing with the fighters that donโt have a promotional deal or are PBC fighters because they donโt have promoters.โ
Previously Adrien Broner contemptuously tweeted the details of a generous offer from Hearn. He has messaged the promoter since. Hearn has not replied. โHe wants me to make him another offer. But Iโm making a lot of offers to a lot of fighters. The offers than Iโm making are significant. I saw Charloโs comments, which were: โweโre already making that kind of money.โ Absolute rubbish. And they know that,โ he said. โWeโve built our UK business on paying exactly the right money for what the fight is worth, sometimes probably more but in general. Over here weโre having to overpay massively. The numbers that Iโm throwing about no one else can do.โ
He wants three key fighters to be the stars of this new platform. โI only want one, two, three max major names. My selling point is, youโre going to be the focus of the platform,โ Hearn said. โDo we have a Mikey Garcia, or a Charlo or a Broner yet? No. But we donโt want too many of them. We only want one or two. Talks are ongoing with Mikey Garcia, we had a brilliant meeting and heโs extremely interested. Heโll fight [Robert] Easter on the 23rd then weโll pick up talks for him to box potentially on the platform in November. The Charlos thereโs an ongoing conversation withโฆ They want โLions Onlyโ promotions to be Mayweather promotions. As I said to them, we have no problem working with โLions Onlyโ promotions. They just need a promoter. So does Mikey Garcia.
โIf they want one fight on the platform, we donโt have a problem with that. It could be anyone. Gennady Golovkin! Canelo! Where we struggle to compete is on a major pay-per-view fight financially. Otherwise Showtime and HBO could not get within two million dollars for a big name in a one-off fight, in terms of the US rights fees. So if Mikey Garcia wants to have one fight on the platform, heโd get a fortune. [Same] if Gennady Golovkin wants to have one fight, if Canelo wants to have one fight, if the Charlos want to have one fight. And youโll see quite a bit of that.โ
โ[Garcia] is probably one of the best fighters Iโve ever seen and no one really knows who he is. Same with the Charlos, same with Deontay Wilder,โ Hearn continued. โAdvisers and managers donโt really want a promoter involved. Because they want total control. [Al] Haymon and other advisers should be looking at some of the deals that are being offered to the guys that they perhaps canโt do the right job for and, rather than say no, no, say, โYouโre getting more money than I can ever give you, youโre getting more activity than I can give you, youโre getting more promotion than I can give you, as my client I have to tell you – this is good for your career.โ But that wonโt happen.
โNo oneโs going to want to do me any favours.โ
He is adamant that the overall package theyโre offering will be appealing. โIn terms of the marketing spend, the cross pollination with Warner Music, Spotify, all these ideas, this is what we will show the fighters when we talk more in depth with people like Charlo and Garcia. When they come to see us, which will happen over the next weeks and months, they will get to understand a lot about the machine behind this thing. Some will poo poo it and try and make out like itโs some geezer who started a streaming service from his bedroom,โ Hearn said. โYouโll also probably see quite a few relationships blooming between DAZN and other platforms and broadcasters to give exposure to fighters. One of the arguments will be theyโre starting from scratch with subscribers. Donโt rule out DAZN teaming up with a major network to show the fights, possibly on delay, to hit numbers.
โThis isnโt a boxing channel, this is a sports channel and sooner or later theyโre going to be acquiring NFL, NBA, tennis, everything. But theyโve got at the moment sixteen US shows, sixteen UK shows and another major announcement coming at the end of June, with a load more boxing content for US subscribers which theyโre going to be over the moon with. I would say theyโre probably up to 50 dates a year already. BoxNation is ยฃ12 a month, this is probably going to be the same or cheaper and itโs a sports platform not a boxing platform, but already theyโll have 50 dates.โ