On October 6, the first event of what Eddie Hearn described as “the biggest deal in boxing history” will take place
Earlier this year Eddie Hearn announced that Matchroom Boxing had signed a broadcasting agreement with on-demand streaming service DAZN. The deal is worth approximately $125 million per year for eight years or, if you like, a total of $1 billion.
The debut card under the DAZN era is pretty darn stacked. It features former world titleholders Jessie Vargas and Demetrius Andrade, IBF light heavyweight titleholder Artur Beterbiev against Callum Johnson and WBO, IBF women’s lightweight champion Katie Taylor against Cindy Serrano.
The only problem is it clashes with what is likely to be the biggest MMA event of all time.
The Grudge Match
Conor McGregor will return from two years away from the Octagon to try to reclaim his belt of Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229. If PPV king McGregor’s comeback fight wasn’t enough of a draw, the heated beef is sure to get fans to part with their hard-earned cash.
Since UFC 229’s headliner got announced, Hearn hasn’t heard the end of it, as he told FightHype.
“I do find the online world real strange. I remember when they announced McGregor against Khabib for October 6. Literally they announced it and within a second, I had like three or four people going, ‘Haha! It’s the same night as your DAZN show. How do you feel?'”
“How bad is your life that the first thing you thought of when that got announced was, ‘Hahaha Eddie Hearn’? Rather than going, ‘Well, that’s a good fight’ you thought, ‘Oh that’s the same night as Hearn. Gutted.’ Mate, you’ve got to just get some hapiness in your life.”
Well-wisher
Hearn has some bad news to those poking fun at him – he doesn’t actually mind. The boxing promoter claims that he’s actually happy for other peoples’ successes. So he appears to be content in fighting a losing battle against a Red Panty Night.
“I didn’t really want people to succeed when I was a kid at school. Even when I was playing team sports, rather embarrassingly, a part of me would always want me to do better than my teammates. I look at it now a bit ashamed of that, but at the time it seemed quite normal. Now, I genuinely want people to do well.”
“Not even my rivals, if you call them that, do I look at and think, ‘Ugh, I fucking hope the arena falls down when they’re in there.’ I just think, ‘Good luck to you, mate.’ If someone works hard and deserves success, I hope they get it. Forget boxing. I feel like in life, if you have that metality then good will come to you. You’re not going to like everyone, but you should always be pleased for others’ successes because your success will come. I feel like that. I never used to feel like that. Maybe it’s just a getting old thing.”
Haters, drink your hatorade!
