During this interview with Fight Hype, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn shares his thoughts on YouTube and exhibition fights taking center stage as of late with some of boxing’s best fight yet to be made. Check out what he had to say on the topic below…
Hearn on Floyd Mayweather vs Logan Paul:
“I think (these events) are good for the sport, in drops. And this is what I said about Fury-Joshua and Crawford against Spence — if we don’t start making these fights those other ones will become the norm because the broadcasters, it’s a numbers game. So what’s delivering eyeballs, what’s delivering subscriptions? The answer is, at the moment, not Errol Spence against Danny Garcia, but Tyson against Jones in a fuckin’ exhibition.
“So we’ve got to fight back ourselves. We got to collectively work to keep this sport going. And you only do that by making great fights. Boxing will always survive if the content is great.
“I was never really a fan of Tyson-Jones exhibition, but actually after I watched it I thought ‘okay, harmless,’ do you know what I mean? Logan against KSI, again, enjoyed it. Massive numbers, I learned a lot. Floyd against Logan?! Nah. No. Where’s the narrative, you know what I mean?
“But the only thing I will say is we have to kind of agree that they are bringing eyeballs to the sport, aren’t they? It’s okay if you can bring them in, educate them, turn them into fans. Because the argument will always be, and people are right, ‘yeah but what percentage of that audience come in just fuck off and never (come back) again?’ 90%? But I’ll tell you what, that 10% is a big ol’ number.
“However people might say boxing’s dead or Dana (White) might say ‘boxing’s fucked’ — they’re all coming trying to get into boxing, aren’t they? So we must be doing something right. But we have to showcase great fights, great content, great product. So we have to make great fights.”