That is the same for every promoter, come up with a card in your head and think of the undercard of that event and try and tell me that there are many good 50/50 fights other than the main event? Talking of Matchroom though lets take their most recent card, capital punishment. Mitchell vs Estrada, on what I saw of Estrada vs Figueroa I was picking Estrada to beat Mitchell so I would say that was a good fight in that it should have been fairly even, yes Mitchell battered him but that was a phenomenal performance. Ryder vs Godoy, yes this was a mismatch, the other guy was tough but he was never going to lose this one. Martin vs Boylan, 50/50 fight before the fight, yes Martin outclassed him but it was very competitive throughout and the bookies actually had the odds the same for both fighters prior to the bout. Hibbert vs Goodjon, again a close fight prior to the bout and the bookies favoured Hibbert slightly, I always though Hibbert would win an entertaining fight. That's really not bad in terms of match making. Good competitive fights really, maybe lacked the names that Matchroom shows generally don't, but it was a decent night of boxing. I wont defend Hearn on this though he does make mismatches quite often but every promoter does, look at who Santa Cruz is facing still and he is one of the most talented guys out there at the minute, I think all promoters are fairly similar in what they do regarding match making so I think it would be unfair to single Hearn out for criticism on this one
I don't think Hearn is anywhere at the level he would like to be. He is very young in promoters terms, about 36 I think. He has achieved a massive amount in the time he has been at it and I don't think in his own mind he has even gotten started. Fair enough, he has inherited a good situation from his dad, and I wouldn't class him as the "saviour of British boxing" like I have heard some call him, we have the burgeoning talent coming from the amatuers to thank for that, and that is down to work and restructuring put in years ago now. I do feel of all the British promoters he is the most capable of getting the best for our boxers by a country mile and would like to hear some of his critics suggest alternatives. I agree some of his shows are awful, I recently criticised Josh Warringtons April opponent, but he is reaching out to the general public, putting sell out shows on in different locations all over the country as well as getting all his fighters good rankings and title shots. I think he is great for British boxing and look forward to seeing what else he can achieve.
Agreed, not much I could disagree with there, as Tony Bellew and Carl Froch said recently, he has delivered on every promise he has ever made us
It really saddens me that this jumped up little gob****e is the best we can muster to put on shows in the UK. It says far more about his rivals than it does him. Not that other countries have it much better - in fact why is boxing run by still run by greedy little weasels?
Just to confirm there was at least 15,000 empty seats at the froch vs groves 'sellout'. And pretty much all of the cards he's put on since have been garbage affairs in boxing terms. I give him credit in that Eddie and Matchroom have made going on a night out to the boxing with your mates more appealing. It's almost became an excuse just to go on the **** up with the lads and head out clubbing or whatever afterwards. I'm just glad my brother works for a gambling company and gets VIP complimentary tickets to most shows. **** paying 60 notes to watch that recent 02 card.
The Bellew-Cleverly show was well promoted. Cleverly is the one who stunk the place out. That isnt Eddie's fault.
Matchroom have had a pretty slow start to the year which is rightly going to draw criticism. They have being pretty unlucky as well, major injuries to 3 headliners in Brook, Crolla and Joshua as well as Quigg. I think the Froch Chavez situation has caused a bit of a log jam in terms of fights been made cards put together, and I don't just mean Degale. Again this ended in an injury to Froch which is very unusual and just bad luck.
He couldn't sell the entire capacity of wembley so there was always going to be 12k plus empty seats (think it was 77k and he could sell 80k tickets, 10k of them on some kind of travel package due to tfl)
Yeah he cant do much about that, its not ideal and any promoter would struggle if that were to have happened with them. Froch, Quigg, Brook, Crolla and Joshua all suffered injuries preventing shows and preventing names on shows means there will always be criticism. Add to that guys like Fielding and S. Smith and you can see why he has had a few substandard cards