Conor also benefited hugely from a few things. One was the natural rivalry that developed with Eubank Jnr, which was already big and then got even bigger after he popped for PEDs. Then there’s the “rapid” improvement he made on that run from Formella through to Van Heerden, because that was a completely different fighter to the one who boxed Jussi and Jamoye. At that stage his skillset was basically Campbell Hatton or area level. Whereas by the time he was blasting out Vargas, Algieri and Van Heerden he looked more dangerous than his old man at his peak. Thing about nepotism is it opens doors that would otherwise be closed for you, just like academic and professional credentials do in other fields. Whilst I’m not a fan of either Hearn or Benn, Fast Car is a workaholic who lives for it at the expense of everything else, and PEDs aren’t a superpower, you still have to put the work in, and Conor is a gym rat. Both are pathological liars, and I’m sure they’ll keep taking shots at each other until the inevitable reconciliation happens, like a Trump/Elon on-off bromance. Shame to hear Prograis is likely going into the fight injured and will probably make Benn look good, but I guess if he’s getting seven figures he’s decided the risk is worth it.
It feels like Hearn really wants to blurt out more during these interviews. He has no problem saying Benn failed two drug tests now after years of calling them "adverse findings"
The thing I'm loving about all this is Frank Smith coming out of his shell. His deadpan interviews mostly saying "never liked him anyway" (and he seems to be genuine with that) kind of shows the Matchroom dynamic between the showmen and the delivery.
It also highlights how dishonest he is. He spent the last few years telling us "Conors a great kid". Now all of a sudden he never liked him. Those grapes must be seriously sour! I think the true winner of this is the publicity Zuffa are getting, if they had signed anybody else it would of caused an initial headline then faded down quickly, but with the constant back and forth between Benn and Matchroom over the move it is keeping the headlines running and getting the Zuffa brand maximum exposure. Their social media following has grown enormously since this, they have played a blinder, Frank Smith and others have taken the bait
100% - and all the nonsense that "it's not a one-fight deal" whilst planting Benn on the biggest show this year in a can't-lose fight on Netflix, will generate way more than $15m in media spend. They make Matchroom and their "shoulder content on DAZN" look like amateurs.
I don’t like to say this but Hearn is right as far as I can tell. I know it’s early days with Zuffa but you only get one chance to make a first impression and their first impression(s) has been grim. People talk about meaningless fights, but their early fights have been the definition of meaningless. One monotonous 10 round pts decision after another by, and with the odd exception, fighters that only an uber hardcore fan would have heard about. Throw in the lack of context and lack of narrative and it’s just a series of random fights. Why isn’t there Zuffa rankings so a fight could be billed as Zuffa no.2 fighting Zuffa no.4 for example ( whatever that would mean ) ? Now they are talking about Hitchins defending his IBF on a Zuffa show, which is the correct thing for them to do by the way. Say what you like about the alphabets, they give the sport a structure and despite what everyone thinks, are generally, generally, hard to win. I’d be very surprised if we see 5 UK shows this year, flabbergasted if we see one next month that isn’t some sort of glorified show that you would see on a Sunday afternoon at the York hall. I have absolutely zero inside knowledge and I know Turki has a lot of money ( he also has a lot going on ), but it will be a huge jump to go from here to ‘ boxing has been taken over. ‘ It, unsurprisingly, looks a lot like Liv golf and literally no one knows how that competition works. Liv golfers are desperate to play in the majors on the PGA tour while the reverse doesn’t seem to be true. If Conor Benn has been paid £15 million to fight an injured Prograis on someone else’s show and then can sign with Matchroom on Monday, what’s the point of that ? Publicity ? Yeah for Benn and Matchroom. Not for Zuffa, he’s back where he started. Same if he signed for Queensbury, Boxxer, Goldenboy or Top Rank. Even the PBC. I look forward to being proved wrong but Turki has still kept a foot in the original set up with his Ring events. I wonder why. If he wants to take over boxing with Dana White, why is he still financing the thing he wants to kill. That’s like Trump sending Iran some more drones. Look this post is too long already, no one wants a lecture and like I’ve said, I have no inside knowledge and don’t pretend to have but I know a busted flush when I see one and this is already looking a bit like one. The alphabets and the promoters aren’t going to just roll over and die. They are like organised crime families and Zuffa have given them an excuse to work together. I’m guessing there will be a few horses heads in beds before this is all over.
Well said, and the corporate / mafia comparison is probably closer to the truth than most realise. At some point survivor bias becomes the only play, and that’s where the danger lies. Turki doesn’t strike me as having any real interest in the sport itself – it feels more like he’s playing status and power games, often looking more interested in his phone at shows he’s spent tens of millions of OPM putting on. The guy seems more focused on chasing celebrity and influence than building a long-term business model that could actually work. At some point Dana either walks, or gets shown the door once Zuffa boxing starts hitting the UFC's bottom line, especially if the fighters revolt and start demanding pay parity. And don’t knock York Hall either – better atmosphere there than most stadium fights, and at least it’s genuine fans rather than vanity-metric chasers. Richardson Hitchens is actually a good signing, and with the same manager as Benn, it’s pretty clear what his status is. Connolly increasingly feels like just another piece on Turki’s and the Saudis’ chessboard, which at times just feels like ABC sportswashing.
Thank you for your excellent reply. You are 100% right about the York Hall. Its the lifeblood of the sport. For me it was just a comparison between the perception and the reality of Zuffa. Im reading from people who appear to be in the know that it will be a one stop shop for fighters going forward. It might well become that. At the moment it is miles away from taking over the sport. The PBC were going to do that. They were even going to have their own belts. Ultimately that didn't happen and they had a much better roster of fighters at the start than Zuffa have. The PBC was destroyed by fighter in activity. Fighters were paid hugely and there wasn't enough tv dates. Fighters didn't need to fight so much, and couldn't because of the shortage of dates. To me this looks like a problem for Zuffa too. 12 dates a year. That's nothing. To take over a sport, surely, youd need 12 dates a month. Hearns right, blink and you miss their shows. They are in a limited crowd ' apex ' There's no atmosphere. Its like the covid shows. Yet thats going to take over the sport and the promoters who put shows on in arenas and stadiums are the ones that are going to die. Maybe I'm stupid but I can't see it.
Lots of good points in this post. Turki is playing a game of divide and conquer, having options on big name fighters across all promotions, and spread across broadcasters. Don't mind admitting I enjoy LIV Golf, and I don't feel your comparison fits. Not because it's a righteous cause or anything, I know it's a Saudi influence exercise, and most of the players who moved there went only for the money. But no tour is the pinnacle of golf. The four Majors are and will always be what careers are judged on, and they aren't run by any tour. (Even the PGA Championship isn't run by the PGA Tour). Each major chooses their own qualification criteria. That's why even in the early days of LIV when players like Mickelson were pariahs, they were turning up at eligible majors. The PGA Tour wish they owned a major - that's why every year without fail, compliant media outlets start running "Should the Players be the fifth major?" stories. In fact it's the main reason imho why, apart from patronage, the Turki boxing analogy doesn't fit. The Majors are the pinnacle of golf and the Saudis want to be part of them, instead of killing them. That's what Zuffa are on record as wanting to do to the boxing "alphabet" belts.
The only way it works as a going concern going forward is if Turki and the Saudis continue to underpin it financially, because beyond that the model looks fundamentally flawed. Anyone can run a loss-making business for a while. Plenty of tech start-ups are built exactly that way, living off rounds of funding and hoping one outlier eventually pays for the rest. The problem is 90% go bust, and the few that make it need huge fat-tail upside to justify it. Unfortunately, as you said, none of it really looks like a viable business in its own right – it’s more of a money pit, and boxing is no different. It all feels a bit like the Trump-Iran situation. Turki, much like Donald, probably drew the plan up on a napkin and has since been placated by sycophants, while insiders get rich off the back of it, the underlying strategy remains unsound. The Super Six was probably the closest thing boxing had to a UFC-style model, and it was a great idea on paper, but because of the nature of the sport it became a logistical nightmare. Even if they somehow get everything under one roof, the model still looks a lot like DAZN’s, with huge outlay, limited route to profitability, and ultimately financially flawed from the outset. Sure, insiders can get very rich off the back of it, but that doesn’t mean the underlying plan actually works and is sustainable over time, and what happens if everyone else in boxing unites and calls Turki’s and the Saudis’ bluff? It just becomes another Taco Tuesday scenario.