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Eddie Hearn: Five times the Matchroom promoter has smashed it out the park

Eddie Hearn Joshua vs Ruiz

Hearn currently works with the biggest and best fighters in the world, including Canelo Alvarez, Anthony Joshua and Katie Taylor.

Love or loathe him, Eddie Hearn has the charm, the chat and isn't afraid of the limelight.
Just look at the silk pyjamas he wore during fight week for Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez earlier this year.
Many will question his integrity and accuse him of selling his soul to the devil with fights such as KSI vs Logan Paul 2 and Jake Paul vs Aneson Gibbs to gain subscribers for DAZN but no one can deny his work ethic and passion to deliver.

Like Hearn would say himself, 'he has a right pair of b*******' and when he sees an opportunity to earn a few notes, he grabs it by the horns.

To celebrate the Matchroom mogul, Planet Sport takes a look at some of his greatest achievements in boxing.

DAZN

In 2018, Hearn became the first promoter to sign a $1billion dollar deal to broadcast boxing events with OTT streaming service DAZN.

Having seen his success in the UK, John Skipper hand-picked the Essex man to break America. The contract specifies Hearn will promote 16 shows a year in the U.S. alongside 16 in the UK until 2024.

Matchroom USA has an impressive stable which includes Anthony Joshua, Oleksandr Usyk, Mikey Garcia and Katie Taylor.

Joshua's rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr was the most watched live event of 2019 on DAZN worldwide with 1.2 million subscribers tuning in.

Fight Camp

One year ago, Coronavirus shut down the sport and there was a major concern as to how boxing would return without any gate receipts.
How would fighters remain active and where would the events take place?

Competing against Frank Warren, who promoted fights at the BT Sport studio around the same time, Hearn came up with arguably his finest moment in the sport - Fight Camp at Matchroom's HQ's back garden.

It was also dubbed as 'MSG', but less about that…

In four successive weekends, Matchroom produced a series of thrilling fights, including the all-English female bout between Terri and Natasha Jonas, Ted Cheeseman's thriller against Sam Eggington and Alexander Povetkin's stunning upset over Dillian Whyte.

Promoting boxing's two biggest stars

At the moment, there is no denying Hearn is the best promoter in the world, and his current stable backs up that claim.

Alongside legendary Gennadiy Golovkin and Irish superstar Katie Taylor, Matchroom Boxing works with Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Anthony Joshua.

Canelo is regarded as boxing's Pound for Pound best having won world titles in four divisions, including super middleweight, a division he looks to unify when he takes on Billy Joe Saunders next month in Texas.

Joshua, meanwhile, is the unified heavyweight champion and holds the record for most pay-per-views generated with his rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr. selling an estimated 1.6 million.

Prizefighter

We may now have the MTK Golden Contract and Ultimate Boxxer but we all know the original concept was with Prizefighter by Barry Hearn.
The format saw eight fighters compete in the quarter-finals followed by the semi-finals and final on the same night.
The bouts had the same number of rounds in an amateur fight (3) with the winner receiving £80,000.

Taxi driver Martin Rogan won the inaugural event while Audley Harrison won the third heavyweight edition in 2013, promoted by Eddie, which helped him challenge David Haye for the WBA world title.

While the fight left fans underwhelmed from a dominant performance by Haye, the heavyweight fight helped Eddie secure a deal with Sky Sports and from there he signed Darren Barker, Carl Froch and Kell Brook.
As they say, the rest is history.

Froch vs Groves 2

This was the fight which really elevated British boxing and Hearn's profile.
The grudge match between Froch and George Groves took place at Wembley Stadium in front of 80,000 fans - had to throw in the 80,000 for those who were not aware...
While the rematch promoted itself, Hearn still had to ensure everything ran smoothly behind the scenes.

Carl Froch delivered one of the biggest knockouts witnessed in British boxing history against George Groves at Wembley Stadium

The aftermath of the event helped start a new boom in the UK and since then, we have seen plenty of boxing cards in football stadiums, including heavyweight champion Joshua, who has sold over 300,000 tickets in England and Wales.

If Joshua's undisputed fight with Tyson Fury can be agreed, then it will no doubt be his greatest achievement in the sport with the winner becoming the first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis.

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