Eddie Hearn went on the offensive yesterday in response to a tweet from Neil Marsh, manager to European welterweight champion David Avanesyan.
Last night Marsh wrote, ‘A certain promoter keeps hating on our true champion David Avanesyan who is one of [the] nicest guys in boxing. Time to put [the] record straight this next few days. The amount of shit that comes out of the person’s mouth is embarrassing.’
Avanesyan, now promoted by Frank Warren at Queensbury Promotions, has long been linked to a fight against Conor Benn but the fight has never looked like being made.
Boxing Social’s Andi Purewal brought up the tweet from Marsh and asked Hearn about it who praised Avanesyan enormously during his lengthy response.
“Tremendous fighter, very dangerous fighter just not as big as the fights I’m looking to make,” Hearn’s reply began.
“Next fight Conor Benn needs to be fighting at the level of David Avanesyan. And I put Avanesyan in the same level as Danny Garcia, Mikey Garcia, Adrien Broner but you’ve only got to look at when he last fought to tell you the size of David Avanesyan. That’s not disrespect. I’m just telling you that we can’t make as big a fight that drives as many [DAZN] subscribers, that will pay Conor Benn the same kind of money that we can with the others.”
Hearn, who promotes tonight’s Conor Benn-Chris van Heerden show in Manchester, then revealed an offer that was put to Marsh after Avanesyan stopped Josh Kelly 14 months ago.
“Let me just tell you one thing about David Avanesyan that people never talk about. We offered Neil Marsh a fight with Alexis Rocha in an eliminator for the WBA world title in America. This is after the Josh Kelly fight. He chose instead to fight Liam Taylor. David Avanesyan’s last two fights have been against Liam Taylor and [Oskari] Metz. It was embarrassing.
“Conor Benn’s last two fights have been against Chris Algieri and Chris van Heerden. Who’s fighting the higher level of opposition? If you want all these big fights, go, and make a big fight. I don’t mind Neil Marsh at all. Stop worrying about Conor Benn, go and do your job and make him a real fight
because he’s a real talent.
“Avanesyan is an exceptional fighter. Avanesyan is a fine man, he’s a lovely guy, I think he’s a lovely man but what are they doing with him, no clue. Forget about us, if we don’t wanna fight you don’t worry. We’ll go and fight Algieri, van Heerden, Mikey Garcia, Adrien Broner, Kell Brook and then
we’ll see who David Avanesyan fights.”
Hearn wasn’t done. The Matchroom promoter told Boxing Social they would take the Avanesyan fight if one with Garcia, Broner etc could not be made. But he then went from ‘we will’ to ‘we’ll definitely consider’.
“If we can’t get a big name we will fight David Avanesyan, no problem. It’s a great fight. It’s a very dangerous fight. How much more complimentary can I be about David Avanesyan as a fighter. It’s a really dangerous fight, as is Mikey, as is Danny Garcia, as is Broner, that’s the level of those guys.
“One of the main reasons he [Benn] hasn’t boxed Avanesyan yet is because I feel that it’s a really tough fight that has to generate enough money for risk/reward. I can’t be more complimentary than that. I’m not saying he’s not good enough, we don’t need Avanesyan. I’m saying he’s good, he’s dangerous, he’s just not Mikey Garcia, Danny Garcia, Broner. If we can’t get a big name, if we can’t get a big draw, we’ll definitely consider David Avanesyan despite everything that’s being said.”