Mike Coppinger, senior writer for The Ring, reports that Matchroom is set to announce a new partnership deal on Thursday with an online streaming platform called DAZN.
“The British promoter’s American initiative, Matchroom Boxing USA, is set to announce on Thursday in New York a major streaming partnership with the fledging service DAZN, multiple sources with knowledge of the deal told THE RING,” reported Coppinger.
When speaking about the announcement to Boxing Social, here’s what Hearn had to say:
“It opens the floodgates for us to have a bigger budget than anybody. We’ll be actually able to go to fighters and say ‘you can have regular championship boxing. This is a long-term deal with a huge amount of dates. We can plan your future.’ It’s going to be attractive to a lot of people.”
According to THE RING, the four-year deal includes 40 fight cards per year for Matchroom Sport that will be streamed on DAZN. Sixteen events will be held on U.S soil and the remaining 24 fight cards will be held in the U.K.
Hearn is already anticipating big name U.S fighters to sit down with him and hear what he has to offer with his new platform and, most importantly, the new budget.
“It will be interesting to see who comes over but the floodgates are going to open. We will be after every top world class fighter that does not have a promotional agreement.
“Who is a target for Matchroom Boxing USA? The Charlo brothers, Adrien Broner, Mikey Garcia, Errol Spence, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Deontay Wilder,” said Hearn.
Hearn is looking forward to making aggressive moves in the U.S market, starting with his new streaming service announcement. But despite the big pile of cash available, the experienced promoter isn’t looking to overspend unwisely.
“We didn’t have the pot of money that we have now. So now….it’s a bit like fantasy boxing for me this announcement. I can go out and really make my moves. It’s not a case of making the mistakes that others have made in the past of just wasting money. We still gotta put the right numbers together and make sure that the shows are fantastic.
“We now have the opportunity to go to those guys, pay them more money, I think even more promotional backing that they have had ever before and a lot of people are gonna wanna listen… just to see… what can Hearn offer us?” concluded the promoter.
READ MORE:
Eddie Hearn comments on Frank Warren’s BT Sport announcement
Eddie Hearn sets a deadline for Joshua-Wilder – “We have two weeks, three weeks max”