I have more respect for Joshua, even though he quit, getting in the ring with another credible opponent in Ruiz, then Fury milking and taking advantage of moronic casuals who just want to cheer lead their flavor of the month fighter. Joshua has consistently fought respectable level opponents, meanwhile Fury has sat on the sidelines. And he has the cheek to call other fighters dossers, when he's the one who has been the undisciplined drug cheat who's resume is littered with candy floss dross.
I don't think Joshua did. He had done his homework and this is why I do not believe he underestimated him and this is why Ruiz beat the best Joshua there is.
No one in their right mind thought Ruiz was anywhere near a bum, on the level of Schwarz. Most people thought this would be Joshua's 2nd or 3rd hardest fight.
The fight was widely ridiculed and the bookies installed Ruiz as a massive underdog. There's a reason that it's right up there with Douglas for upset.
Tyson gets an easy ride because he’s not promoted by Matchroom as well People would’ve wanted Hearn lynched if Joshua fought Tom Schwarz and rightfully so. If he had tried to make it £20 on PPV with no undercard worth talking about there would’ve been an absolute outcry.
Bull. Go back on this forum a few weeks and months (from when the Ruiz-AJ fight was announced) and show me where most people thought he’d be anywhere near that. Go look at the weight-in posts about how Ruiz came in so fat he would gas in 2-3 rounds and it was a joke of a fight. You’re rewriting history.
Nah, Hearn is no dunce, his success as a promoter eliminates that conclusion, but he will be a dunce if he throws AJ straight back in with Ruiz. That will also prove Hearn's desire to empire-build is greater than his desire to manage AJ's career correctly. The dude has been run into the ground as the face of pretty much everything: Matchroom, Sky, DAZN.... all his corporate sponsors etc etc, all to the detriment of his boxing which, since he fought Wlad, has stagnated. No excuses though, he got beat fair and square. He may well win the rematch but that will just paper over the cracks and ramp the pressure right back up to maximum when the smart long term move would be to let him rebuild in fights where he can work on the skills which are lacking from his game. Yes, Hearn in no dunce but he is a chancer...
Hearn rode the crest of the once in 50 years 2012' Olympics wave and benefitted from Warren being long past his sell-by date as a promoter by the the time that came around in around 2010. He also capitalised on the then emerging power of social media to garner a following for very little cost. To that end I give him credit, and as you said takes skill however way you want to define it as many tried and failed. He made a somewhat glaring mistake in putting all his eggs in the Joshua basket however which has now come back to haunt him.
Yeah, he was the first promoter to work out the power of social media and, to be fair, he works as hard as anyone. But it does seem, whenever presented with a problem that needed a solution, his answer was 'Josuha'.
Agreed. It would make an interesting marketing study actually. AFAIK he was the first one to really pioneer the whole "nice questions only" to the new wave of boxing "journalists" i.e. iFL and MJP's etc, where bad coverage resulted in no press pass and no press pass resulted in no views and subscribers in a symbiotic relationship. You end up in a situ where a platform with huge subs like iFL is pumping out MR "news" practically on the hour for free, plus then you have the combined media of Sky affiliated platforms such as Sky Sports news running it. Absolute marketing masterclass in fairness and that's purely from a promo aspect let alone all the endorsements etc.
In Hearns IFL interviews he goes on and on about how he wants someone who will give AJ a "Fight" and not just come for the money. He got his wish.
Eddie Hearn's biggest mistake was not getting his cheque book out in 2017 and signing Fury he was too busy sucking AJ's massive **** which is about to expire