The sports promotion family Hearn expects to use the forthcoming world snooker championships as the test event for bringing fans back into boxing arenas in time for Anthony Joshua’s next fight as the Crucible in Sheffield, under the aegis of Matchroom found Barry Hearn, holds 350 spectators for the biggest event on the green baize.
Hearn’s son Eddie hopes that a successful trial there will win government approval for Joshua to defend his world heavyweight titles against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev in front of at least 2,000 fans in London this October, perhaps at the O2.
‘The Prime Minister’s suggestion that certain numbers of supporters might be allowed back into indoor arenas in the autumn can be big news for us,’ says Hearn the younger.
He also envisages sell out winter nights at the O2 for other big heavyweight battles involving Dillian Whyte, Alexander Povetkin, Olexsandr Usyk and Dereck Chisora.
Frank Warren is also hoping to draw a full crowd to the O2 for the big British heavyweight title battle between Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce in late October.
A series of hefty collisions between Hearns’ big men plus Tyson Fury’s world heavyweight title trilogy clash with Deontay Wilder late in December should result in the Gypsy King and AJ disputing all the belts over two super-fights next year.
‘That was a complete accident,’ says Hearn. ‘No set up by me or anyone else. They laughed and warned each other not to lose their interim fights.’
While their massive fights would rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket sales and on pay-per-view TV, Eddie Hearn warns that the coronavirus impact, including boxing as well as football being conducted behind closed doors, has put an end to the big money free-for-all for most prizefighters.
He says: ‘It’s been boom time for everyone for a couple of years, with the egos of us promoters feeding purses for boxers above their market value. The lockdown events are costing us millions and we don’t yet know how big the appetite will be for the public to return to our shows when the doors open.
‘Only the big fights with major personalities will continue to justify huge purses.
For them, no problem.’ Hearn was speaking on a zoom media call including Sam Eggington and Ted Cheeseman, who top the bill on the first of his series of closed doors shows being staged in the garden of the Matchroom headquarters in Essex.
