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Eddie Hearn wasn’t about to let Bob Arum have the final word.
The rival promoters have been denigrating each other through the press for the last several weeks. Taking issue with some comments Arum made about him, Hearn, 43, accused the 91-year-old Arum of being senile and incoherent. Arum fired back, telling reporters that Hearn’s endeavors to promote in the United States have been an abject failure and that he is not considered a serious competitor by American promoters.
In a recent interview, Hearn responded to Arum’s latest comments, saying he has been wholly unimpressed by what Arum’s company, Top Rank, has achieved in the past year.
“Bob Arum comes out of nowhere and starts taking shots at us,” Hearn told iFL TV. “So, I was only joking. I said they’ve had a terrible year, it’s been Top ‘Wank’. Ultimately, you have to understand, Top Rank is Bob Arum. There is no one in that business dynamic enough to take that company forward as the face of Top Rank Boxing. Bob Arum is 92.
“I have so much respect for Bob Arum. He’s absolutely mental to be in the game at this age, but you have to give him the credit for that. But at the same time, they’ve done nothing that’s impressed me. Tell me what Top Rank has done this year?”
Hearn’s Matchroom, to be sure, has seen its presence cool in recent years after a red-hot start in 2018, when it first linked up with DAZN to make a play to dominate the US boxing market; the number of shows it promotes in the US has since dramatically decreased. Last year, Hearn announced a new deal with DAZN that would focus more on the UK market, a move that many in the industry have regarded as an admission that it had failed to turn things around in the US.
Still, Hearn pointed to several shows that his company put on in the past year that he is particularly proud of, thanks to several key fighters he promotes: Canelo Alvarez’s light heavyweight title fight with Dmitry Bivol in Las Vegas and Alvarez’s subsequent undisputed 168-pound championship against Gennadiy Golovkin, which also took place in the gambling capital; the women’s lightweight championship between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden in New York City; and the heavyweight title unification bout between Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk. (The last fight took place in Saudi Arabia.)
“Tell me what shows they’ve (Top Rank) put on of that magnitude in the US?” Hearn said.
Hearn then knocked Arum and his company for having “no ambition” and ridiculed them for going to small venues to promote shows.
“They’re in small arenas, they go to Virgin Resorts World and somewhere else … they’ve got no ambition,” Hearn said. “Bob Arum has got no ambition in boxing anymore. He’s looking to make money and get out. Right? We’re both at very different stages of our companies and our mindset. We have a global vision for the sport.”
Despite appearances to the contrary, Hearn defended his company’s presence in the US, citing the recent junior bantamweight title fight between Roman Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada in Glendale, Arizona. By contrast, Hearn mocked Top Rank for having to stage a heavyweight fight between Efe Ajagba and Oscar Rivas, scheduled for Jan. 14, at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino, a popular, if modest, venue in upstate New York. Hearn also suggested that ESPN, Top Rank’s exclusive broadcasting partner, was beginning “losing faith” with Arum.
“In America we’re doing tremendously well,” Hearn said, “We just had 9,000 [spectators] for ‘Chocolatito’-Estrada last week. They haven’t even sold out Teofimo Lopez against Sandor Martin. The event, the week [sic] after that, is up in Turning Stone (Verona, New York), [heavyweights] Efe Ajagba against Oscar Rivas. The numbers on ESPN are terrible and they’re losing faith with Top Rank because they lack ambition. Because Bob Arum is 92 [sic]. But I’m not starting this. He came out and started having a pop at me. Don’t blame me for defending myself.”