Hearn continues to reach out to American fighter’s in hopes of luring in the bigger names
Well, Eddie Hearn needs a stable of fighters for his promotional company to be successful in America. He has one equation out of the way when he signed an 8 year/$1 billion deal with DAZN, a sports streaming service coming to states.
Securing fighters however has become tricky, as Adrien Broner and him went back and forth negotiating in front of the world on social media.
Broner reached out publicly that him and Hearn should talk business. Hearn responded by offering a 3 fight 1 year deal worth almost 7 million dollars, Broner told him no and that it was a “slave” deal. It must be noted Broner made about a million dollars when he fought to a draw against Jesse Vargas. Hearn essentially offered a lot more than Broner has made, to somehow call it a slave deal is ridiculous, to say the least.
Hearn also offered heavyweight prospect Adam Kownacki a 3 fight/$1.5 million dollar deal to fight on DAZN, however Kownacki’s manager Keith Connolly stated his on the verge of resigning with PBC.
Hearn needs fighters and Jermell & Jermall Charlo have confirmed that Hearn has reach out to both men. The Charlo twins have also heard from Bob Arum as well, to their credit the twins have said to be open to discussing a deal with Hearn.
Whether or not Hearn can land the names that he needs to be successful remains to be seen. Fighters seem to be open to the idea of working with him but getting them to sign has proven to be quite tricky. Hearn has one thing going for him, DAZN has deep pockets and is willing to take a loss to get the streaming service running in America in the hopes that it will pay dividends down the road.
Hearn must get creative and with a $125 million dollar budget, he must seriously think about over paying a little bit to entice some of the big names he needs. Matchroom Boxing USA has the money, getting the fighters however has so far been the tough part.
He has some competition in Top Rank who is looking to add more fighters, Haymon seems to have a good relationship with his fighters to the point that their turning down more money to stay put.
There’s also the fact that DAZN although the largest streaming service in the world is coming to America and the success they can have will rely on pricing. It looks like it might be a tough start for Hearn but if anyone can make it work, it’s gonna be him. Will signing a couple of fighters lead to a domino effect? Maybe, I’m sure that is what Hearn is hoping for. Getting it to happen seems to be the tough task at hand.
By: Wilson Urena
