IT does not seem likely that the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor extravaganza will trigger a wave of UFC versus boxing crossover fights. But one that does makes sense is Irish Olympic gold medallist Katie Taylor boxing Holly Holm, the conqueror of Ronda Rousey.
โThatโs a fight Iโm in interested in. Holly Holm is a very good boxer. So Holly Holm would beat most boxers on the female circuit now. It doesnโt feel like a freak show, itโs actually a really good fight. Thatโs definitely something weโre interested in. We wouldnโt be interested in Holly Holm against Katie Taylor in a cage and the problem is that Holly Holm makes a lot of money. So do you take her out of UFC, put her in a fight then what do you do? Do you put that on pay-per-view? But the first plan for Katie Taylor is to fight on the Joshua card and win a world title on October 28. Then we want to take her to the States to defend it and then try and unify next year,โ promoter Eddie Hearn said.
Hearn is not considering branching out of boxing into other combat sports. โIf youโre a salesman, which I am, you have to believe in a product to sell it. Iโve never been an MMA fan,โ he said. โIโm passionate about boxing and Iโm not that passionate about MMA. I donโt think Iโd be as good a promoter in MMA as I am in boxing.
โItโs something weโve looked at in the past. We were quite close to doing something about a year ago but then boxingโs just exploded so we have to really keep our eye on the ball. Plus weโve got our American business starting up. If we start diversifying, taking our eye off the ball in boxing, we might not be the dominant force.โ
He is looking at expanding into the USA, not only when Anthony Joshua fights in the States in 2018. โIt looks like weโre going to be promoting a show over there this year with a view to doing probably four or five next year. Obviously weโll be taking AJ there, it was going to be this year but itโll now be next year at some point. Whether thatโs the February/March fight, whether thatโs the [Deontay] Wilder fight we donโt know. But weโre in talks with a number of broadcasters about not just AJ but Matchroom Boxing USA to make sure we can make that transition. Itโs very, very complicated. Itโs not just a case of pitching up and doing a show. You can do that. Itโs about having an organisation there and actually a proper outfit like weโve got here. Itโs required a lot of work but weโre quite close to doing something,โ Hearn revealed.
โItโll be American fighters that weโll be signing but weโll also incorporate our UK [boxers] as well. Katie Taylorโs an obvious fit for a New York show. And so many other different fighters who can fight over there as well. We want to take [Joshua] Buatsi, [Lawrence] Okolie, [Joe] Cordina, all the young kids coming through, [Josh] Kelly. So itโll be our US fighters that weโre signing, weโll be working with other US promoters as well to put them on the show and sprinkling in the Matchroom UK talent as well and obviously broadcasting it on Sky Sports.โ
The UK is an increasingly competitive market. The next few weeks for instance will be packed with action. Hearn continued, โSeptember 16 youโve got Billy Joe Saunders at the Copperbox, youโve got Callum Smith in Liverpool. On the 23rd youโve got Hughie Fury, on the 30th youโve got our Liverpool show. On [October 7] youโve got Crolla-Burns, which actually is flying, then youโve got October 21 youโve got Leeds with [Josh] Warrington, Belfast with [Ryan] Burnett, then on the 28th youโve got [Anthony] Joshua. Oh and on the 14th youโve got [George Groves in London with the World Boxing Super Series.] What Joshua does is heโll take 75,000 tickets out of the market, which makes it very difficult for the other shows and then we do the next Bellew fight in December and that goes on sale and that takes 20,000 tickets out the market in a day. Itโs really difficult at the moment and thereโs going to be a lot of promoters getting burned doing shows this year.
โIf theyโre good theyโll sell but there are so many offerings and itโs not just about tickets, itโs about pay-per-view offerings as well. There are going to be so many pay-per-view offerings that there is a massive saturation in British boxing right now. But that happens in any market when people see success. People think thereโs loads of money in Britain, โWow, letโs go for it.โ Now youโve got this massive carnage of shows which is impossible to follow and impossible for all of them to be a success, including some of ours, it doesnโt mean every Matchroom show is going to be a success. But we have the product where up against theirs ours will sell.โ
He added, โIt doesnโt mean weโre going to take our eye off the ball in the UK. It doesnโt weโre just going to sail off and all live off over there. This will be our main focus but we will be setting up an operation and an office in the States as well. But this has probably been three years in the making, the American move and itโs only been slowed down because of our success in the UK.โ