Hearn British stable

Around the time he signed his DAZN deal and tried cracking America. Took his eye off the ball in the UK.

 

When AJ started losing, the likes of Chisora/Whyte became older (and had drug issues/injuries) and the fighters he was hoping would bring in crowds didn't really peak.

 

Hearn had a good run but his spin and lies in the UK went up in smoke when Joshua lost to Ruiz and it all came tumbling down.

Since that time, he signed the DAZN deal and focussed on overseas markets even successfully penetrating in Oz.

 

This.

 

I disagree about it being weak. Although definitely not as strong as previous years. The focus on USA did have an effect, But he still has a pretty decent UK stable..

Anthony Joshua, Callum Smith, Dalton Smith, Jack Catterall, Conor Benn, Joe Cordina, Peter McGrail

And he has some quality prospects coming up like Pat McCormack, Taylor Bevan, Giorgio Visioli, Jimmy Sains, Pat Brown

 

Yep. They thought they were bigger than than the UK. They get chewed up and spat out by all the American fighters.

 

Trying to crack America and trying to convince your average boxing punter that women's boxing is entertaining

 

Benn is obviously a star, I hope they steer him away from Eubank 2.

AJ probably has 2 fights left at the most, Callum Smith probably the same, and it looks like his next fight will be on PBC anyway. I don’t fancy his chances of not taking a career ending battering against Benavidez either. Cordina is very inactive and difficult to promote as he seems to turn down a lot of fights over money. Peter Mgrail is a very good fighter, but not a star.

Dalton Smith, Brown & Bevan all have potential star power.

If Eddie still has the firepower, and the Whitakers, Azim and a few others become available on the market he must sign them.

 

Why if Benn meets anyone world class st his weight he'll lose

 

Was it actually that good before or was it just fighters with bigger profile due to the 'SKY machine' and the big PPV fights they had?
AJ - Still has him
Bellew - won 1 world title, wasn't elite, big name
Chisora / Whyte - They never were elite, just big names
Brook - Was world class
Crolla - was never elite, just sold tickets
Callum Smith - Still has hime
Luke Cambell - was never elite
Froch - was elite but retired before the matchroom glory days of 2015 - 2020

Other fighters who were on big PPV Matchroom nights:
Groves - Was never with Hearn properly
Degale - Same as Groves
Eubank - was never with Hearn properly, not elite
Haye - wasn't with Hearn

There is more i am missing but cba to go on, maybe the quality was slightly better, but i don't think it was that much better, every fighter seemed better just because of the big profile and coverage they had back then on SKY when SKY was a power house

 

Yes the big difference was Sky Sports and Hearn had a big audience to spout his spin and lies when flogging Whyte etc on Box Office.

Now he is selling his Box Office events to around 300 subscribers on DAZN UK and Turkey's Box Office events would be a disaster if not on Sky Sports Box Office.

 

Think @phil rowe makes an excellent point that it was never quite as good as was it was (over) hyped to be. Think there's two other factors, one that even at their most financially strapped, Franks's operation had a very good eye for up and coming talent. For awhile they couldn't hold on to the best ones as once they reached a certain profile fighters would run their contracts down and jump ship for the greater riches at Matchroom. Once the disparity in budgets was reduced however that better eye for talent started to tell.

Also, and I've not looked into this so it could be wrong, it feels as if at some point Matchroom started putting a greater emphasis on fighters ability to market themselves, they really leant into social marketing in a big way, understandable from a marketing perspective, but maybe this was also the point that they stopped paying sufficient attention to just how good these prospects really were. It feels like MR got complacent about the actual sport and just thought, we'll get the most marketable fighters and sort out the rest with careful matchmaking and the right coaches?

 

How many fighters has Matchroom actually built from scratch?

Strip away the Olympians (AJ, Okolie, Buatsi, etc.), and the early Matchroom "golden era" was stacked with fighters developed elsewhere: Froch and Barker? Hennessy groundwork, Bellew, Brook, Burns? Warren gave them their first major pushes, Even Groves and DeGale’s big nights were more about timing than Matchroom grooming.

Hearn's always been great at positioning, not necessarily developing. The Sky machine elevated profiles, but the foundation was often laid by someone else.

Since then? Very few non-Olympians have been turned into world-level fighters under the Matchroom banner from day one. The conveyor belt just isn’t built for that.

Realistically, Conor Benn is Hearn’s biggest name after AJ — but let’s be honest, without the eggs and the nepotism, he’s another Ted Cheeseman or Lewis Ritson.

A fun domestic fighter, a few war-night headliners — then eventually cashed out when the ceiling hit. But the surname gave him a different route. Most others would’ve been matched tough early, sold some tickets, and quietly faded out.

That’s the Matchroom model: it’s not who earns it — it’s who sells it.

 

I agree with you, but who has Frank taken from debut to star in recent years? i am not saying he hasn't, i just cant think of many off the top of my head, Dubois is probably the main one? maybe he did in the 80's and 90' but i wasn't around then.