eddie hearns thus far has been smoke and mirrors

Basically he didn't think Groves opponent or Bellew v Chilemba were **** and still think it's PPV worthy. Says 16,000 tickets sold in 2 hours shows its a huge fight (fair point)

On why various opponents for Groves didn't happen;

Thomas Oosthuisen - fighting on HBO in June,
Brian Magee - not fit so won't be ready
Jermain Taylor - won't fight anyone sitting waiting for shot also tried to get him for Barker March 9th.
Dmitry Pirog a middleweight no interest at moving to 168.
Karoly Balzsay - Promotional Dispute.
Dmitri Sartisan - Were got close but is going to fight Abraham.
Maxim Vlasov - Offered fight but didn't want it.
Mouhammed Ali Ndiaye - European title.
Perter Manfredo Jnr - chased for a while but doesn't want to fight outside the UK.

 

Now that's interesting

We need promoters on here,explaining fight selections

Fair play to him

For me oosthuisen would of been best and isn't he ibo holder as well as high rankings everywhere.that would of been really good alongside bellew-chilemba

 

OOsthuisen turned down Froch for the Mack fight, and is in a position where is is one of the only viable challangers in the division. He can make decent money v Ward, Froch, Kessler so why take a risky fight with Groves for what would likley be less money. Same goes for Groves in all honesty.

 

He seems to be looking long term, his stable at the minute is quality and it will only get better.

There are so many talented youngsters and you know they'll stay active and that's the big thing, Yafai, Smith and Campbell could have huge futures and we can follow them on that journey from debut to British title onto European and then world level.

In England we do have a habit of building people up to knock them down, some on this site with Hearn are no different, with some people he can do no right at the minute and some of the things he gets grief for are comical.

 

That is in the British culture. Alos we love a loser. Tiger Tim is 100x more popular than Andy Murray because he doesn't smile all the time and isn't nice to everybody....to busy being focused on winning. You think anyone in Germany thinks Shuemacher is a ****?

 

Think people have begun to take Matchroom for granted now as they dont remember how absolutely F'in awful it was before...

Hype job **** fights like that of Khan vs Dimitri Salita or whatever his name was! AND we got shafted with that as PPV!!!

He keeps saying and I buy into it, Eddie is looking big picture. If this stable of young hungry fighters develops then he will have a very strong stable. He needs to regain the publics trust before Sky will willingly return to regular PPV shows, if ever!

 

At the moment, I think Hearn's is doing a good job and I'm optimistic about the future of British boxing. He's not been handed a great opportunity considering the sport was in but I think things are slowly starting to improve and a large part of that is down to what Hearn is doing.

Whilst a lot of fans aren't happy now, you've got to consider that for British boxing to be be at a stage that us fans are happy with, it needs to grow. We all want to see packed cards full of name fighters but for that to happen, the sport needs to become more popular than it currently is and then these big events are possible financially. If Hearn is responsible for looking after British boxing then think about the product which has been handed to him; he didn't pick the sport up after the Benn/Watson/Eubank series or after the recent resurgence with Hatton, Calzaghe, Haye and others, he took over when British boxing was at a low point. It was at such a low point that three of the biggest promoters in British boxing were all kicked off Sky because they couldn't deliver a good enough product. TV ratings are down, live attendances are down and all that contributes to a lack of financial viability within the sport. How can a promoter put on a packed card when the fanbase just isn't there to make it a profitable event? Hearn could make a great Groves fight on the Froch undercard, such as against Stieglitz or something, but where is the money going to come from to pay for that? It's not going to come from the fans or advertisers because they've been pushed away by years of small hall shows which nobody cares about. The only way Hearn can put on shows us fans are truly happy with, is if he's losing money, and if the biggest promoter in British boxing is losing money, that's no good for the sport or the fighters themselves.

Hearn is the one Sky have given responsibility to in making British boxing big again. Can he do that? I hope so, but a lot of people on ESB were expecting radical changes overnight which was simply unrealistic. Whenever he does something fans aren't happy with, people mockingly mention him being a "saviour", like it proves that their is skepticism right, but they don't consider the bigger picture. Hearn's hands are tied somewhat because British boxing isn't doing great right now. For Hearn to deliver a product us fans are completely happy with, he can't just put on great shows because it won't be financially possible to do so, and therefore, he has to build a bigger fanbase for the sport in order to make those bigger events happen in the future. If Hearn is going to "save" British boxing, he needs to do it slowly by increasing it's popularity across the country and by making fighters like Brook, Frampton, Bellew, Froch etc., into mainstream names.

As much as purists dislike it, one thing Hearn tried to do to make boxing more popular was Prizefighter, and the TV ratings say it worked. I know a lot of people on here whine about how **** it is, but even if I loathed it, I'd still praise Hearn because regardless of my personal opinion, if something is good for the sport, I'll be pleased it exists. Hearn added Prizefighter to attract new, or old, fans to the sport and it's worked. As much as people may dislike it, putting up with 4 or 5 Prizefighter shows per year is part of the reason why British boxing is growing again and why we get to see big fights like Froch/Bute or Bellew/Chilemba in Britain.

In the beginning, I think some people expected too much from Hearn. They liked the way he came across and the big plans he talked about, but they didn't appreciate the fact that his ideas will take time to develop. It's not just as simple as putting on a packed card and hoping people will come. If Hearn did that, the only result would be him losing money which only makes the situation worse. What Hearn will do is start to steadily increase the sports popularity by getting his fighters mainstream media appearances and by bringing fans in through other means, such as Prizefighter. It's not always what us hardcore fans want to see but if it makes the sport bigger in a couple of years time, we'll all be thankful for it because that will mean the big events can happen on a more frequent basis.

I think boxing is the greatest sport in the world but it has been grossly mismanaged around the world and in Britain too. We've got warring, petty promoter who won't deal with each other, we have ridiculous mismatches headlining poor cards, fighters aren't being paid and the minute anyone become an attraction, they go to America and fight in front of 2,000 fans instead. It's a joke.

I'm confident that British boxing will become popular again but it won't be overnight, and people shouldn't expect it to be either. I'm just glad that the one person who can make a difference has a clear plan with what he wants to do. We might not like it all the time but I believe in the end, it'll pay off and we'll start having more shows on Sky, bigger events and with better fighters on the cards. Maybe what is happening right now isn't great for some fans but I don't think it's "smoke and mirrors", it's one promoter trying to undo the damage caused by his petulant, self serving predecessors.

Personally, I like a lot of the recent Hearn shows and it's a shame some have been spoiled by injuries and things like that. I don't have an issue with what he's doing though and it's a good sign that people are moaning about the 3rd biggest fight of a card being a mistmatch, considering how many one sided main events we've had to endure over the years. Things aren't perfect right now, but they're a lot better than they have been in the past and I believe that things will improve even further in the future.

 

Is that you Kugan???

Jokes, great post. Think a lot of people have got Abramovich syndrome when it comes to boxing. Theres a new man in charge but if he isnt blowing the world apart already then he is failing the job, when actually he is building towards making something sustainable.

Eddie Hearn is trying to implement the Arsenal dream to boxing haha! Lets just hope he has more success than Arsenal!!!

 

:good

Cheers, mate, and I think you're spot on with the Abramovich comment. It's like British boxing fans want immediate change, which is understandable, of course, but I don't think it's very realistic. Hearn could put on brilliant shows every week but if he did, he'd lose money, and that wouldn't help the sport in the long run. There needs to be a patient change in the way the sport is run and from what Hearn has done so far, I think he'll do that.

 

Pretty much agree with what Ishy and Rob posted. People had unrealistic expectations of Hearn when he first got his Sky deal and now theres a bit of a backlash because he's having to work within certain constraints to make his business viable.

He's doing OK IMHO, its not his problem that Sky have pretty much dumped showing overseas cards, but this "Fairy Godmother of Boxing" thing annoyed the hell out of me at the time, it was never going to be the case that some altruistic promoter would put the sport before cold, hard cash, and I'm glad theres a little more objectivity now when appraising his actions.

 

You have to block out the cretins on here though, no intelligent person would expect him to consistently work at a loss.

There is a kids at christmas side to ESB sometimes, they want every toy without any thought for what their parents can afford.

 

Not I've got much time for tennis or "Tiger Tim" but thats not about the country loving a loser, its about personalities/ public image counting more than achievements.

 

Why should Bellew v Chilemba be part of a PPV event when it wasnt for the first fight?

That in itself is a RIP off.

I like Hearn but he is not delivering the goods on a regualr basis as yet, he is building a larger stable so let's hope it improves....

The main thing for me at the moment is, he is doing the best out of a bad bunch.

 

We saw Hearn the exact same way all the way through.

Then Eddie himself shouldn't have hopped on his high horse about how different he was to everyone else. The argument for him taking all the dates on Sky was that he would make for a more consistent quality. Truthfully, he's not delivered that.

What irked me so much was that people made excuses for it. It's only been since the announcement of the PPV that finally people are showing some objectivity when it comes to Hearn.

On someone else's point - I think Hearn was really decent chatting to Rob, but there's no point him making a habit of explaining why fights don't happen. People will just pour scorn on it when they have an agenda.

Personally, whatever his reasons, the PPV card for Froch-Kessler is very poor. It shouldn't be on PPV with such a poor set-up. Bellew-Chilemba is a bad fight, I don't care if it's a final-final-super-last-time-honest eliminator. The first match was awful, the second one is unlikely to be better (although Bellew might lose and that would be quite funny after the way he carried on).

I never felt the match was PPV-worthy, and it definitely isn't with this line-up.

 

Cos it was main attraction last time and only support now.