In a unique interview with fellow boxing promoter, Alexander Krasyuk, Eddie Hearn spoke of the financial highs and lows from his time in the sport.
Prior to the Usyk-Joshua rematch on August 20, they sat down for an hour-long chat on the BoxOffice YouTube channel, the pair covered a myriad of topics ranging from Hearn’s first role at Matchroom to how he likes to spend his not unsubstantial earnings.
Krasyuk, who represents Unified Heavyweight Champion of the World, Oleksandr Usyk, probed his fellow promoter on a side of boxing fans aren’t often privy to – the economics. Hearn revealed the fight that brought on his biggest financial loss.
“The biggest loss was [Vasily] Lomachenko against Luke Campbell, because I made the big mistake of being a boxing fan.”
“I was looking at it and going ‘this is massive’, you know, this is Lomachenko, pound-for-pound number one, the British fight fans love him, everybody knows him, and we filled the O2 [Arena] up – but the pay-per-view was very poor and it cost me a lot of money.”
“Bob Arum came and didn’t lose any money, in fact made money while I lost money, and that hurt even more.”
The fight he’s referring to saw the elite Vasily Lomachenko outclass British challenger and Olympic Gold medallist, Luke Campbell MBE, via unanimous decision. With that victory he picked up the vacant WBC Lightweight title to add to his WBA and WBO straps.
Seeing a pound-for-pound fighter in Lomachenko on British soil was an exciting prospect for many, but ultimately it seems that it didn’t equate to profit. Hearn’s comments on Bob Arum of Top Rank, who promotes the Ukrainian lightweight, may speak to why matching fighters from different promotional camps is still rare in boxing today.
Going on to discuss more prosperous times, both financially and in terms of victory for his fighter, Hearn revealed the matchup that yielded his biggest monetary gain.
Unsurprisingly, it featured his main attraction and superstar, Anthony Joshua. He told Krassyuk of K2 Promotions, whom he is working alongside to promote ‘AJ’s upcoming rematch with Usyk, of the fight in Saudi Arabia that saw Joshua reclaim his heavyweight belts from Andy Ruiz Jr.
“Financially, the Joshua Ruiz rematch. Joshua made a lot of money that night, so did we. But when you strip it back to sport again, not once did he think about, in camp or on the night or same with me, how much money are we making tonight? When we got paid we did, but it was never about that, it was just about winning.
“Consistency is key. You know that life is like this but the more you can stay consistent – you have to make decisions without emotion. Once you get emotion, once you get angry, once you get passion, that’s when you start making mistakes – and I did that with Luke Campbell.”
There is of course the possibility that the Usyk-Joshua rematch last weekend in Saudi Arabia, where the Ukrainian once again outpointed the Brit, takes top spot when all the numbers are in.