He brings a chance to become a mandatory challenger for the giavenr8ng board that actually enforces their mandatory fights. That's not nothing.
From what understand the IBF are different from other organisations and go down each ranking offer the mandatory shot untill they work the way through the 15.
Ruiz is beyond fighting final eliminators for mandatories. He makes millions fighting 40 year old Arrola on PPV. He will always be in line for a title shot because of his name and drawing power.. Hrgovic offers him noting.
Well that's because the IBF mandated Hunter/Hrgovic and Hunter declined, that's not the case with the others. Fact is the IBF have been trying to organise an eliminator all year and after Martin claimed Injury and Hunter declined it's clearly decided it's better to see who Hearn can get to fight him in the top 15 rather than just go down the list and have the possibility of further mandated fights declined and be forced to drop more fighters out of their top 15. Obviously anything a promoter says should be taken with a big pinch of skepticism but if Hearn is lying then he's put a big target on his back for his rivals to shoot and make him look bad. Right now Hearn is making these guys look bad and you'd expect some kind of response, maybe it's still to come but right now Hearn is winning the PR war and making Hrgovic look like a guy everyone is scared off whether that's true or not that's the narrative he's clearly trying to convey. I'd assume Hearn did more than just throw out a challenge on youtube and actually reached out to see if a fight was possible if he didn't actually make a formal offer. If Ruiz's people outright declined the possibility then there would be no negotiations to report on and even if that isn't the case just because it's not reported it doesn't mean it wasn't happening in the background, I mean did anyone know before that Hrgovic was negotiating with McKean yet here we are with this fight.
He only made a guaranteed 1.5 mill for Arreola and the PPV didn't exactly sell large numbers 125-150K by some reports so I doubt his share of the PPV was increased his purse a great deal. Beating Hrgovic brings him a title shot that in itself is worth the risk but only if you think you can beat Hrgovic.
And yet here we are discussing it. Doesn't need to be reported for it to become widely known within the boxing community and for it to create the narrative Hearn desires. Pretending otherwise doesn't make it true.
I don't see any talk of Ruiz vs Hrgovic apart from this 4 page thread. The fact is Hrgovic doesn't have the money to offer Ruiz. While 2 or 3 certainly turned the fight down , is not true that all 15 of them did. Joe Joyce wanted to fight Usyk for a final eliminator mandatory position. Doesn't mean he got ducked when he didn't get it.Boxing doesn't work like that
He didn’t beat Joyce, it’s not relevant beyond proof he’s not on level. McKean, just like DDD, has fought “domestic rivals” (nice way of saying club fighters and journeymen)
Thanks to McKean for having the guts to take this one even though if you win it you become the mandatory for the IBF held by AJ. So you shouldn’t need any coercion. It is a shame about the others, many of whom I consisted to be men, didn’t step up to the challenge. You cannot look beyond Hrgovic and a stoppage in mid rounds
I'm sure it's being discussed on other boxing forums, reddit etc. Just because it's not reported by MSM media outlets doesn't mean boxing fans are unaware, we're not living in the 1990's. Social media, Youtube etc have forever changed how people receive information it's been a big part of how Hearn has become such a big promoter him embracing the new methods of communicating to the fans is something all the other promoters have been late to the party for and they still don't use it as well as he does. True obviously guys like Usyk had the Joshua fight and Joyce will either be the next mandatory after Usyk or be mandated an eliminator by the WBO, plus his next fight is already set vs Takam. So saying all of the top 15 ducked him isn't accurate but some common sense from the reader is expected when reading such a statement. Parker for example is likely being set up for a rematch with Chisora so I doubt Hearn even offered the fight to Parker as he has other plans for him. We know Martin ducked the fight, he was mandated to fight him in Jan but claimed injury and then he called out Whyte so clearly isn't injured anymore and Hearn says he offered him the fight which makes sense as he is the number 1 ranked IBF contender. Hunter we know for sure ducked the fight, as he was mandated to fight Hrgovic in Feb after Martin pulled out. The fight even went to purse bids which Matchroom won, only for Hunter to say he had a better option and so is fighting a cruiserweight Mike Wilson next month probably for a purse a fraction of what he would of made vs Hrgovic as Hunter would of gotten 60% of the purse which would of been $363K. The other fighters Hearn has named are Bakole, Yoka, Ruiz and Ortiz. Bakole said he wasn't ready for Aug, so they agreed Sept only for him to say he now wants a warm up. Yoka has no fight scheduled but it was reported he might have a EU mandatory in Herve Hubeaux earlier in the year but nothing since has suggested he's locked into any other fight, but he might have a valid reason for not wanting the fight. Ruiz has no set fight planned but he's a big enough name that Hrgovic is a step down and it's been talked about for ages that he would fight Ortiz, if that fight happens then they both have good reason not to take the Hrgovic fight but if they both go onto to fight journeymen in their next fight which I think is a real possibility then I'd say they ducked the fight.
Ah yeah you're right I thought he had a fight set up but couldn't remember who he was fighting. Milas is a decent opponent too though obviously not as big a threat as Hrgovic and beating Milas doesn't bring Yoka a title shot like Hrgovic. But that might be a good reason not to take it, Yoka might want a slower career trajectory and winning a mandatory position at only your 11th fight puts you on a path that could lead to a title shot within 15 fights which is fast by anyone's measure.
Difference was Hunter accepted then withdrew and therefore lost his place in the rankings, the other fighters were offered the fight but declined the position. As they never accepted the position before pulling out their ranking remains
