Eddie Hearn hasn’t held back with his views about an upcoming world title bout and has called it a “joke fight.”
Hearn was speaking at the post-fight press conference following Jack Catterall’s impressive revenge win over Josh Taylor. Given that result, he is now looking to get Catterall the world title fight he thinks he deserves having missed out on becoming undisputed world champion when he was on the wrong end of a controversial decision against Taylor when the pair first met two years ago.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn didn’t mess about when he targeted Teofimo Lopez as a potential opponent for Catterall and laid into Lopez’s next opponent, Steve Claggett, in a video shared on the Matchroom YouTube channel.
“[Lopez vs Claggett] is a terrible fight. But look, Steve Claggett’s a real tough guy. We got offered Steve Claggett for Subriel Matias and I said ‘he’s not good enough.’ I can’t tell you that Subriel Matias is this unbelievable talent and put him in with Steve Claggett — what’s he got, eight, nine losses, something like that on his record?”
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to Steve Claggett, but it’s a f**king disgrace. It’s a joke, an absolute joke fight. It’s on ESPN. You talk about Teofimo Lopez coming off a good win against Josh Taylor, says he’s the best 140-pounder in the world. That’s a joke fight. This is the guy who should be fighting Teofimo, and we believe he’ll beat him all day long. We believe he should be a world champion.”
Many people have called for a third a final fight with Taylor to settle the score once and for all but Hearn revealed that Catterall’s preference is to go after a world title.
“Jack Catterall against Teofimo Lopez is a proper fight, but let him do his thing. We love that fight after. I’ll be honest. The rubber match is there. It does exist [with Taylor]. It is a big fight, but the focus is a world championship fight.”
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