If AJ was with Frank would his talent still get him to the top or is he simply manufactured by Eddie? Is it possible to become a PPV star without Eddie in the UK? or will fans only buy matchroom stamped PPV? If it's not matchroom, it's not quality that's the idea I get from the UK twitter army?
Hearn's great at developing fighters into names, I mean who would have expected Bellew and Crolla to be big names? Warren can't build a profile to save his life.
Surely Mick Hennessey is being underestimated here. With his charisma and business genius he could turn anyone into ppv starts. Except all his fighters to date obviously.
Hearn has a very supportive platform in Sky with deep pockets and a news channel that can hype up the fights endlessly. All the other promoters don't seem to think outside the box when it comes to selling fights- rarely using cross platform promotion at all.
There is so many factors, where to start... The promotional scene is mildly competitive now to when AJ was making the decision. No BT, or ITV, no PPV platform for box nation or anyone else really. Matchroom were out on there own. AJ was already some what of a national hero and star after winning Gold at the home olympics. I think he would of been a star regardless but Eddie Hearn certainly got him to where he is much quicker than he would of done it with another promoter. Eddie Hearn is young, Charismatic and knew what to do to get social media involved exactly the look AJ needed and Hearn was well placed with the Sky Deal to take full advantage. They were good for one another who knows how big It would of also taken much longer for Eddie to get where he is now if not Anthony Joshua had come along.
Eddie Hearn has SKY behind him, a 24 hour sports news channel. No one can compete with that. It's not FW's fault no one has heard of people like Terry Flanagan.
I’ll add to that IF AJ was turning pro in 2017 and coming off the olympics... he could of done it on ITV or even YouTube and been a house hold hero in the UK. But I still think he benefits hugely from the mouth piece of Eddie Hearn and eddies use of social media.
Sky really isn't a deep Company with deep pockets,their revenue is about 8 billion,half of that goes to the Preimer League.If they lose PL rights,with a auction this year,Sky Sports will collapse,if they pay more which is likely,other sports including Boxing will get less funding.I'd say boxing gets a budget of around 150m,which really isnt that much,compared to what BT,HBO and Showtime can offer.There are reasons why the undercards can be really shite on Hearn's cards.Because he dosent get the funding.
If he goes on Itv or Youtube he loses out so much tv money.What's more worth it for AJ,being free on Itv or ppv on Sky Box Office with 500 thousand people minimum paying to watch.Sky Box Office.Am i right in thinking Anthony Joshua is the first British PPV fighter,without fighting on a free to air channel his whole career.That tells you how big he is.
Sorry but It’s a 100% frank warrens fault know one knows Terry Flanagan... The sole aim of a promoter is to promote there fighter and their fights. He failed miserably in recent years and not just with Terry Flanagan. Eddies success isn’t simply down to having sky but he has certainly used the tools at his disposal to full effect and why shouldnt he.
I’m talking about building his career on Itv or YouTube both in 2017 include the option for paper view.... Say his career fights had gone exactly as it has I would argue if he had actually started boxing free to air until his 16-17th fight and then went ppv on ITV box office... they would killing records even more than him on sky.
The thing with Eddie Hearn, to his credit, he thinks of a fight has a package and not just inside the ring. For example, the story behind the fighters, their struggles, their personalities, how they blend and interact with their opponents particularly at press conferences, the context of the fight, where they will go from there if they win etc. The difference between Hearn and other promoters is that they focus on the fight. Hearn loves the drama and can build a fight into something that sometimes it simply isn’t ie. Murray vs Rosado was going to be a war...
Sky played a MAJOR role in this. For years they literally created a boxing bubble where no other fighter outside of matchroom existed. Obviously there was a couple of exceptions now and again but as a whole it was very much nobody else exists. The 'casual' element just never heard of any other boxers for years because sky wouldn't even mention them. That why they see matchroom as this huge world class stable when in reality that has Never been the case.
