iFL TV<\/a>. \u201cI, actually, received an email from Conor Benn\u2019s lawyer to make me aware of it.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m not going to sit here and hang Conor Benn out to dry. I\u2019ve got to be honest with you; me, personally pretty devastated. I\u2019ve had a few days to digest what might happen. So, maybe this interview\u2019s different to what it would have been a couple of days ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not often you get shocked, and I blame myself. I blame myself. Because I just forgot it was boxing, you know? I just felt that the loyalty that we\u2019ve shown would never, ever put us in this position. And I just felt that I never really needed to push Conor Benn to sign a new contract previously. I probably could have got him to sign a new contract previously. Like I said, I blame myself. I made a mistake because I misjudged the character.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd again, I\u2019m not going to hang him out to dry. He will say, \u2018Oh, it was a big offer!\u2019 But, you know, when I received the email from his lawyer, I texted him and said, \u2018I think we should have a call. For everything I\u2019ve done for you, I think I deserve a call,\u2019 and he said no. And I was like, man, f*ck. I can\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just, I don\u2019t know what to say. I felt that everything that we gave him, the loyalty that we gave him, the support we gave him, would be enough to talk it through, or just get close to a number. But it wasn\u2019t really the interest. So, very surprising. Very painful. But just another moment in life that you live and learn from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benn has been a staple of Matchroom for nearly a decade and is one of the promotion\u2019s biggest draws. In his announcement, Benn noted his long relationship with Hearn and said he hopes Hearn will \u201ccontinue to be part of my team and our partnership to evolve in this new chapter.\u201d But despite their long history together, Benn ultimately chose to leave, and while Hearn isn\u2019t ruling out working together in the future, it\u2019s clear he\u2019s been hurt by Benn\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime is a healer, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Hearn said when asked about working with Benn again. \u201cI\u2019m not going to sit here \u2014 I\u2019ve read all the comments. I think I\u2019ve never been so popular for a few hours. But ultimately, everyone\u2019s different. I\u2019ve had a couple of texts \u2014 because he texted me just after the announcement \u2014 and I replied. We had a few back-and-forths, but you either feel like you\u2019ve done nothing wrong or \u2014 like I said, everyone\u2019s different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had dozens of messages from people in boxing like, \u2018Are you having a laugh?\u2019 But like I said, everyone\u2019s different. I\u2019m not even going to go too deep on it, because I could do. But, I don\u2019t know, it feels a little bit like a wasted few years, because I gave a lot. I gave a lot. You know how hard I fought when no one believed him, no one backed him. I did. I believed him, and I backed him. And I never gave in when he was done, out. Loaned him hundreds of thousands of pounds. But yeah, on we go. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Hearn continued when asked again. \u201cWho knows what the agreement is? Like I said, I\u2019m not going to sit here and \u2014 I had some very choice words with his manager, Keith Connelly. \u2026 Sometimes you live in that world and you just kind of lose your head a little bit. You just kind of lose an understanding of reality and what\u2019s right and wrong. I just feel that the way it was done was very, very wrong. But that\u2019s just my opinion. And here, he might say, \u2018Yeah, but it was a lot of money.\u2019 But like I said, everyone\u2019s different. Some people, loyalty really matters. Other people, maybe not so.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sticking point for Hearn seems to be the end of the negotiations. Unconfirmed reports say that Benn\u2019s deal with Zuffa is a one-fight, eight-figure deal<\/a>, and while Hearn didn\u2019t speak to the numbers, he says Matchroom could have come close to matching the offer, but Benn wasn\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n\u201cWe replied,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cI think part of the deal we would have got quite close to, but I think by then it was just the way that it played out. It was like, to receive an email from the lawyer, and then to ask for a call and not get the willingness to have a call, I think by then it was just \u2014 you kind of lose a little bit of your soul to it. Like, wow, I really lost a lot of my soul during that two-year period. It was pretty brutal. So, at the moment, it\u2019s just digesting it. It\u2019s a little bit numb. But right now, there\u2019s a lot I could say. There\u2019s a lot I could say, but we\u2019ll keep it classy.\u201d<\/p>\n
This also, of course, colored the spat between Hearn and Dana White earlier this week, with Hearn acknowledging that while the Benn signing didn\u2019t happen as a result of their exchange, but is intertwined in the growing beef between the two promoters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was kind of before that, if I\u2019m honest,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cBut definitely a part of the reason. Conor was used as a pawn in that respect, but that\u2019s just the business. \u2026 This has got nothing to do with my comments yesterday, because this was days before that. But it\u2019s all part of the game. Obviously, Turki, Dana, all that kind of stuff. But like I said, this is going to be a long war.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn surrendered first blood in his battle with Dana White. On Friday, Hearn and his promotion, Matchroom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,1920,1347,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-494797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-latest-news","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}