Eddie Hearn has hit out at his fellow promoter Frank Warren.
The Matchroom Boxing head honcho has claimed that Warren, who fronts Queensberry and is Hearn’s man UK promotional rival, thinks more about the business of Matchroom – which was founded by Eddie’s father Barry in 1979 — than he does his own affairs.
Matchroom have a broadcast deal with global streaming platform DAZN, while Warren is the sole producer of boxing on BT Sport in the UK.
Hearn believes it has been a decade-long obsession for Warren, 70, as the 43-year-old prepares to expand into even more territories after doing a deal with Abu Dhabi to stage boxing there. Speaking to iFL TV, Hearn said:
“Some people just focus on us and me and unfortunately for Frank, he’s been at it for 10-plus years.
I’ve not paid rent in that mind for 12 or 13 years and I’ve been a pleasant tenant, but I guess I’m not going to leave the brain anytime soon.”
Hearn’s comments come in the wake of Warren’s assertion that his rivals are out of the heavyweight picture, despite being the promoter of former two-time unified champion Anthony Joshua, who was outpointed by Oleksandr Usyk in a rematch in Saudi Arabia last month.
He added:
“I still believe we have the biggest draw in the division [in the shape of Anthony Joshua]. If he’s not the biggest draw in the division, he’s the second-biggest draw in the division.
We also work with Dillian Whyte, we’ve got the mandatory challenger for the [IBF] world heavyweight title Filip Hrgovic, [Frank’s] probably forgotten about that one as well, and even Zhilei Zhang.
We’ve got Derek Chisora still rumbling on, we’ve got Dempsey McKean, top 10 in the world and we’ve got plenty of investment in the heavyweight division.”