Eddie Hearn contradicts himself on where Andy Ruiz vs Anthony Joshua 2 should take place.
We are now three full weeks removed from Anthony “AJ” Joshua’s (22-1, 21 KO’s) stunning loss at MSG and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, is still doing damage control.
In a recent interview granted to Kugan Cassius on IFL TV, Hearn once again tried to put a positive spin on the June 1 upset and the upcoming rematch.
To be honest, Eddie Hearn is all over the place in this piece. It’s almost as if he doesn’t know that cameras record what you’re saying and can be played back later.
Ever since Andy “Destroyer” Ruiz Jr (33-1, 22 KO’s) knocked AJ down four times, scored the TKO and took his belts, Eddie has relentlessly clamored for the rematch to take place in the UK.
While at the same time, virtually every media outlet, and even Eddie himself, has reported multiple times that Joshua was adamant about doing it again at MSG.
Now, in this interview, Hearn is saying he doesn’t care where the rematch takes place, so long as AJ is comfortable. The younger Hearn also is now saying that Joshua doesn’t care where the fight is and leaves the decision up to his team.
“I say to him, ‘where do you want to do it?’ And he goes, ‘I don’t really mind, where do you think?’ I go, ‘yea, but where do YOU want it? I think we could go back to MSG, you know, where it all went wrong. I think that would be a big statement’.
“I’m like, ‘yeah but, you know, it’d be pretty cool to do it in the UK as well’. I’m like, ‘so what do you want to do?’. [AJ] ‘I’m easy mate, you guys can decide’.
“So that’s really where we are at the moment. There is more money in America.”
Inconsistency On The Record
This is a glaring contradiction. In the worst case, Eddie is straight-up lying. At best, if this is accurate, this statement makes Joshua appear rather wishy-washy and completely indecisive.
In another eye-brow raising declaration, Eddie Hearn said that there existed no major pressure from DAZN to stage the match in America.
For most people, this does comes across as a flat-out lie. The entire design of the DAZN app’s current campaign is to gain traction in America. Aside from this, it’s been well reported that the DAZN numbers and their live gates have left a great deal to be desired.
It’s no secret that Anthony Joshua was positioned as one of DAZN’s biggest marketing tools in the region. Joshua v Ruiz was literally AJ’s official coming out party for the US audience.
To say that DAZN would want the rematch staged anywhere but in the US comes off as the height of lunacy. There is no question they would want the do-over located in the states.
Also, after sliding upwards of a billion dollars into this American take-over effort, there’s no doubt that the brass at DAZN are speaking loud and clear on the matter!
“It’s not about pressure from DAZN […] yeah but when you talk about pressure from DAZN, it’s either, you accept the deal their offering or you do it in the UK.
“It’s not like, they’ve turned up to my house and started waterboarding me. Tying me up saying, ‘you will do it in America!’
“DAZN would love this fight in America, but at the end of the day it’s not going to be swayed by a few million dollars. It’s going to be swayed by Anthony Joshua saying, ‘this is where I want it’.”
By: Bakari Simpson
