Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn spent time talking to boxing media immediately following Boots Ennis\u2019 big win over Xander Zayas. Fielding questions, Hearn reveals that Zayas has the option for a mandatory rematch if he so chooses, discusses Bam Rodriguez, Oleksandr Usyk, and more. Check out some excerpts of what he had to say below.<\/p>\n
Hearn on working on plans for Boots next outing<\/p>\n
\u201dIt\u2019s not common knowledge but Xander has a rematch clause. So I believe he\u2019ll probably move to 160 but it\u2019s interesting, he said in the ring tonight, he said \u2018I didn\u2019t struggle at the weight\u2019. He might look back and maybe looks at the third round…<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got the right to exercise it but at the same time he took a lot of punishment and I think Boots will be a lot better next time, to be honest with you because as much as experience he has in terms of fights, that was his first real moment in the madness and he\u2019ll learn a lot from that. He\u2019s only just turned 29.\u201d<\/p>\n
On comparing Boots to Bam Rodriguez<\/p>\n
\u201dI think they\u2019re both very similar in the way they approach their fights. For example, Bam goes in the other week against Vargas and with all due respect and Vargas and Xander, they have no respect for them, really. They walk them down from the opening bell, stand in the pocket and just beat them up.<\/p>\n
\u201dBut the result of that is really entertaining fights and probably take a little bit more punishment than the coaches would like. And Bam was the same, wasn\u2019t it. I mean, he got hit a lot in that fight but he chose to get hit a lot in that fight so he wouldn\u2019t give you a 12 round decision, so that he\u2019d wear him down and stop him.<\/p>\n
\u201dSo when you look at that P4P list, who are they guys that come out and fight like that? Who are they guys that make the casual fans go \u2018what a sport, this is thrilling\u2019 and that\u2019s Bam and that\u2019s Boots, and that\u2019s Benavidez as well, not my fighter, but again, really exciting fighter to watch. And for me, I know that\u2019s what the casuals want to watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the purists will go \u2018oh, well he got buzzed, he got hit too much.\u2019 Yes, I know, but what you\u2019re seeing is thrilling.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Usyk giving up his belts<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s earned the right to do whatever he wants. So he\u2019s going to fight Wilder next, I believe, and that\u2019s just the fight that he wants to take…I think maybe he\u2019s realizing does he want to be put under the pressure of an order of a fight…Is he slipping? I don\u2019t know, but I think he\u2019s earned the right to do whatever he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the potential for Bam vs Inoue<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had no approach about the Inoue fight, at all. So at the moment it\u2019s just hearsay. Turki Alalshikh has mentioned it to me before but right now we\u2019re planning a defense for Bam in November, December. So a unification for Bam unless we hear from those guys and they really want to do it, and Bam\u2019s ready to move forward with that fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn spent time talking to boxing media immediately following Boots Ennis\u2019 big win over Xander…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,1920,85],"class_list":["post-767899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767899","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=767899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}