Alen Babic has said that he was hurt by Eddie Hearn, who was bested at the purse bid for his WBC Bridgerweight World title shot.
Babic is set to fight Lukasz Rozanski for the vacant belt on April 22 after it was recently vacated by Oscar Rivas. KO Promotions – a Polish company – won the rights with a bid of $425,000 against the $350,000 from Hearn’s Matchroom.
After being promoted by Hearn for all eleven professional fights of his career thus far, Babic will now be challenging for world honours on a card promoted by BOXXER, who signed up as co-promoters, on Sky Sports.
In an interview with iD Boxing, Babic revealed his frustration about the fight taking place outside of the United Kingdom and showed his intent on putting on a show and proving Hearn wrong.
“I felt betrayed. Of course I did. I want to take my title in the UK.”
“Everybody expected this fight to be in the UK, nobody thought that Matchroom can be outbid by Poland, it is so crazy. But, Eddie Hearn talked to me the day before yesterday, and he said I look better than ever, he complimented my form and my pads and stuff, so I don’t know if he made a mistake, maybe he is realising that.”
“He has got bigger fish to fry with Joshua, Usyk and Fury, I think I kind of fell off in the third plan. This game is a dirty game, I don’t expect anyone to love me just for being me and having a bald head.”
“I was really hoping that my fight was going to be in the U.K. and I am hurt because it is not, but I am going to Poland and I am going to give them a show. I am going to give Eddie Hearn something to think about, he is going to see that he made a mistake.”
Asked by Boxing Social about the comments from Babic, Hearn said:
“Betrayed we lost the purse bid? It’s a business. I love Alen Babic, but we bid what we believe was the value of the fight. There was only two bidder – the Polish promotional company and us.
If we hadn’t have turned up and bid, they could’ve bid £50,000, so we drove that bid to the values it was. He’s making good money.”
The event is set to feature BOXXER fighters such as Martin Bakole and Caroline Dubois.