Yes saying something repeatedly doesn't make it true That's why Benn will never be exonerated or a great fighter. And Anthony Joshua will never be the best heavyweight
No one believes those things though or has said them here. If you only read this forum, you'd believe that Matchroom have their backs against the walls and that half their UK shows are filled with prospects against journeymen! Crazy thing is that Sky's boxing shows have such few viewers that they have had to place a lot of their shows on Sky Sports Mix and Sky Showcase to increase the viewership.
My mates used to watch boxing but no so much now because two things no matchroom on sky instead boxxer, and boxing is now on dazn. Half of Matchroom shows are prospects or women fighting like the rest but overall the quality is better.
Same here regarding my mates. 6/7 years ago it felt like we were round one of the lads houses every other month chipping in for a Matchroom PPV on Sky. A quid each, a load of beer and the undercards were always worth watching right the way through. Even those with little interest in boxing found it a good night. The reality is Sky needs Hearn and Hearn needs Sky. There were no winners in the Sky/Matchroom split.
Just throwing in a little Fury esq leaning jab now and again but must have landed below Hearn's Belt. You got the point.
Heard the locals outside the Gypsy Camp state there were about 30 million people watching the fight last week in the UK but they thought Box Office is dead. Increasingly these days, the Box Office buys do not match the eyes.
When you take a step back and remember the sheer dominance of Matchroom when they were with Sky, there was no real domestic competition. Frank was fading into insignificance and all major fights were with Matchroom on Sky. I remember the 'global takeover' with Matchroom US holding a major press event in New York after signing Danny Jacobs as the first of many significant fighters. With the backing of DAZN they looked Lilley to take over the world while keeping the UK locked down with their domestic Sky Sports Deal. Fast forward to 2023, I'm surprised at how underwhelming the progression of Matchroom Boxing has been, I was expecting them to be much bigger than they are currently by quite some distance. For arguments sake, let's just say Matchroom are number 1 in the UK as of now, the fact that it's even a debate shows how far Queensbury has come in recent years, how Boxxer have grown from nothing and conversely, how Matchroom have lost their dominance. Hearn is constantly flinging mud at his rivals and become increadibly petty these days, because he doesn't have the monopoly he once did. I'd never have predicted it would turn out the way it has so far, but who knows. If Frank can make such a huge comeback, maybe Matchroom Boxing can?
It's not a debate - Matchroom are clearly number 1 in the UK. Matchroom have recently expanded into Mexico and Japan. They are putting on top quality fights in the US - more than when they were with Sky in the UK.
If we go back to 2017 - 2018, I was 99% sure that Eddie Hearn was well on his way to becoming the world's biggest and most powerful boxing promoter, but it certainly hasn't turned out that way. You can look at it from many different angles. Has Eddie Hearn managed the large amount of money from DAZN in a sensible way ? Personally, I can only admire how Frank Warren, with a limited financial budget, is back on the big stage. Well done !
There is rose tinted glasses with matchroom on sky, There were less world title fight on normal sky than on dazn, it was all PPV, i remember working out that warren had more world title fights than matchroom did over a number of years that wasn'y ppv. with dazn that is an improvement. Plus when Hearn was with dazn and sky, i recall an interview with adam smith saying that matchroom needed to do better with uk cards because fans were moaning. at least sky with doesn't cut out when i watch fights like dazn and i still don't think matchroom is that good on dazn with one or two decent fights on a card of about 8 fights
In relation to the finances from DAZN, Eddie Hearn has probably underperformed. It is also connected with the fact that Eddie Hearn promised far too much and the product that Matchroom has delivered to DAZN has been of different quality. Some of the headliners have been pretty good though.