In every era of boxing, it is nearly impossible to think of the sport without recognising the characters who forge its great spectacles. Amongst a litany of legendary fighters who epitomised these eras\u2014the likes of Muhammed Ali, Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather\u2014there are also staples in promotion: the key players who curate the bouts that cement legacy and shape the spirit of the sport. Bob Arum, with Top Rank, defined modern-day promotion; Don King, with his flamboyant showmanship, made fights larger than life. Some former champions now run their own promotions\u2014Oscar De La Hoya with Golden Boy, and Mayweather with his own ventures\u2014bringing the insight of the ring to everything that makes a fighter a star.<\/p>\n
While the sport has always had its iconic promoters, there\u2019s one man and his company who now stand at the forefront: Eddie Hearn<\/a> and Matchroom\/Boxing<\/a>. Eddie has become one of the most notable figures in boxing, his extravagant spiel carrying a natural, showmanlike charisma that reels people in to massive occasions. He demonstrates a keen awareness of the period boxing is in\u2014not just from a business standpoint, but as a fan of the sport and the grandeur of its athletes. Having witnessed his father, Barry Hearn, found Matchroom in 1982 and develop it into a top global sports promotional company, it could have been easy for Eddie to live an indolent lifestyle. He has often been tagged as having been fed with a silver spoon. However, a principled upbringing\u2014shining shoes, washing cars and working as a salesman\u2014instilled a hardworking and honest drive that shaped him into the man he is today.<\/p>\n Eddie Hearn\u2019s first major boxing promotion came in 2001 with the WBA Heavyweight Title fight between Audley Harrison and David Haye, an effort to revive Harrison\u2019s fallen gold-medal-winning Olympic career. For many fans, this was the moment Eddie first made his mark on the boxing world. Harrison was by no means a world-class fighter, but after a chance meeting with him at a poker game, Eddie committed to promoting him. He carefully mapped out a plan that included entry into and victory in a Prizefighter event, ultimately setting the stage for an all-British World Heavyweight Title showdown. Eddie\u2019s promotion of the fight was magnetic, bewildering if you knew Harrison\u2019s limits, but heavyweight boxing was in a precarious state, and such an injection was needed.<\/p>\n When David Haye dispatched Harrison in three rounds, many assumed Eddie\u2019s front-facing promotional career was over. However, Haye congratulated him, and the public recognised his talent\u2014he could sell an inhaler to a fish. Soon after, Terry Thompson asked Eddie to promote his son, Kell Brook, followed by Carl Froch and Tony Bellew. Then, in 2013, boxing changed forever with the signing of Anthony Joshua, fresh off his 2012 Olympic gold, forging a grand relationship with Hearn and setting off Matchroom\u2019s era of dominance, coinciding with the meteoric rise of social media.<\/p>\n Thirteen years later, Joshua had become a two-time world champion, with Eddie Hearn at the helm of boxing\u2019s first billion-dollar deal with Matchroom and DAZN. Hearn has also staged some of the generation\u2019s most memorable fights, from Froch vs George Groves II and Joshua\u2019s first world title win over Wladimir Klitschko to his epic bouts with Oleksandr Usyk. He oversaw the Madison Square Garden classic Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano, Dmitry Bivol vs Canelo Alvarez, and Bivol vs Artur Beterbiev at the Riyadh Season. Hearn has also promoted domestic showdowns, including Callum Smith vs Joshua Buatsi and the intense rivalries of Conor Benn vs Chris Eubank Jr. Beyond the established stars, he has nurtured the next generation of talent, guiding Dalton Smith and Ben Whittaker as Matchroom\u2019s rising prospects.<\/p>\n In this social media-driven era, sports promotion and conversation are highly accessible. Channels like Boxing Social, Fight Hype, iFL TV and Seconds Out have become cherished spaces for boxing voices. Across these platforms, Eddie Hearn mesmerises the internet with his gift of the gab, hilarious expressions and irresistible promotion of Matchroom\u2019s next big event. After Dalton Smith\u2019s emphatic win, Eddie spoke to Complex UK ahead of two major fights: Bakhram Murtazaliev vs Josh Kelly for the IBF Super Welterweight Title in Newcastle, and Teofimo Lopez vs Shakur Stevenson for the WBO & Ring Magazine Super Lightweight Title.<\/p>\n COMPLEX: You\u2019ve been in and around sports from a young age, witnessing Matchroom\u2019s evolution as a global sports promotional company. What would you say is your first sporting memory? And what about boxing, since you\u2019ve been around the game for so long? I think when I came into boxing about 15 or 16 years ago to promote, people probably underestimated me. That 20 years of education around the game\u2014listening to negotiations, watching sparring, being in the changing rooms, being on the road\u2014every experience I gained during that period was invaluable. Not that I ever thought, \u201cThis is great for me because it\u2019s going to take me to where I want to be as a boxing pro.\u201d I never wanted to be a boxing pro; I wanted to be a sportsman, like every kid wants to be growing up. But when you\u2019re not good enough, working in sports is a great alternative.<\/p>\n The first time I saw you was promoting Prizefighter. There comes a point when every sports fan\u2019s relationship with a sport they love evolves. I\u2019ve watched boxing all my life, but around 2010 I began to understand the promotion behind it and what makes a great event. Since then, I\u2019ve seen you do interviews with outlets like iFL TV, Seconds Out, Fight Hub, and many more. How important has it been for you to engage with the evolving independent boxing media as much as you do? Having spoken to Frank Smith recently, I can see that it\u2019s been a perfectly-timed plan that\u2019s worked brilliantly in this era of boxing promotion. Over the past 15 years, seeing how social media has become such a central part of the sport\u2014the moments, the memes, the interviews all coming together\u2014has truly evolved the boxing game. When you talk about boxing, it\u2019s like watching a child experience their first trip to Hamleys: your face lights up and you get swept away in a stream of pure appreciation. That excitement was clear in your reaction to Dalton Smith\u2019s emphatic victory over Subriel Matias for the world title. You mentioned that the British public needs to recognise what this man has achieved\u2014could you expand on that? You\u2019ve taken your events around the globe, recently hosting cards in places like Accra in Ghana, and Monte Carlo, Monaco. Which city has stood out as your favorite to visit and host a fight so far? Lastly, what are the biggest boxing events you\u2019re looking forward to this year?
Eddie Hearn: It probably was around cricket. I played county cricket for Essex from under-11s up to about under-17s. And yeah, I think sport for me has always been a massive part of my education. I actually think that my best qualities come from sport, not education. I think it\u2019s a great educator\u2014life skills more than academic skills, obviously. But it was something in our family that was very, very important. My dad was away a huge amount, but when he was back, he was always in the garden playing football, bowling at me in the garden, playing cricket, diving around trying to beat me at table tennis. Everything was a \u2018you win when you\u2019re good enough\u2019 kind of mentality. That\u2019s the same way I am with my kids as well. You never let them win. Never! But if they\u2019re good enough, they\u2019ll beat you. And that time will come. When they win, they\u2019ve really earned it. The satisfaction for them is at a different level; that was what my dad was like. Those were probably my earliest sporting memories.<\/p>\n
Boxing was something that I was around. My dad started promoting when I was 8 years old, so I went to a lot of those shows growing up. The boxing world for me was normal at that point. Going to a private school wasn\u2019t, but hanging around at the boxing gym with fighters and people working within boxing was. From the age of 8 or 9, going to these gyms and shows, getting close to the fighters, holding their belts and seeing the development of Chris Eubank, Naseem Hamed, Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis, Nigel Benn and Steve Collins\u2014all the fighters my dad represented\u2014I never really knew it would become the educator for what I\u2019d end up doing.<\/p>\n
Right! In Liverpool.<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s a great way to interact with the fans, and we were the first to do it. When I started in boxing promotion, social media was exploding, and no existing promoters had any presence. So we attacked Twitter<\/a>. Sometimes I see tweets from 15 years ago, like: \u201cHi guys, what does everyone think of this fight?\u201d It was raw. There were three of us in the boxing department: me, John Wischhusen and Frank Smith. I was designing posters and running social media, Frank was learning TV contracts, and John was dealing with the board. We were trying to take it to another level without the manpower, so we all mucked in. I would be on Twitter all day and night, debating with fight fans. That came with iFL as well. Later, I looked at UFC with Dana White and WWE with Vince McMahon. I realised I needed a presence where people saw me not just as a voice of boxing, but a prominent figure. When there\u2019s an Eddie Hearn or Matchroom show, it feels different. The fights are great, and it gives that big-event atmosphere. That was part of establishing our identity. Back then, there used to be one or two media figures; now there are 50. You want to give your time to newcomers as well as the established, because they were like iFL once. But I\u2019m 500 times busier now. I remember Kugan coming to my house at 6am, and we\u2019d drive to Manchester for a press conference, filming me dancing in the car<\/a>\u2014we were just kids! It\u2019s been a wild ride, and timing worked perfectly.<\/p>\n
You know, it\u2019s like your life: you get one shot at it. It\u2019s like a book, right? Or a movie. I know that when I pass\u2014whenever that may be\u2014you can run all this stuff back. Like, you can run back Dalton Smith vs Matias, me diving in the ring. Darren Barker, Kell Brook. Me dancing in a car, the memes\u2014all that kind of stuff. And people will say, \u201cHe had a presence.\u201d Do you know what I mean? People will say, \u201cWow, he did a lot. He was definitely a character.\u201d For me, that\u2019s a great way to be remembered. When it\u2019s all said and done, I want to be remembered as a good person, a great father\u2014a family man. And then, on the business side of things, I want to be remembered as an honest man, one who always delivered for his fighters, and always paid them on time. \u2018But he was a character! And a grafter.\u2019 Not everyone\u2019s going to like you, but they\u2019ll have to respect you if you do those things.<\/p>\n
I think there\u2019s so much going on in the world, and in sport in general, that sometimes achievements like that get overlooked. I mean, we lost that purse bid, so it was on a smaller platform, meaning the audience wasn\u2019t really that big. However, we live in a viral world now. You may lose a couple of hundred thousand viewers on the night, but the reality is tens of millions saw that stoppage and watched the highlights. You want fight fans to go, \u201cHe\u2019s a real one.\u201d This guy actually went over to America and beat the monster who\u2019s never lost, hasn\u2019t won a fight except by knockout, in his own backyard, in front of all the Puerto Rican fans. This is right up there with Kell Brook vs. Sean Porter. This is Lloyd Honeyghan vs. Donald Curry. This is John Stracey vs. Jos\u00e9 N\u00e1poles. This is real stuff. It wasn\u2019t a war cry to drum up interest; that was a genuine, \u201cGuys, you\u2019ve got to give this guy props.\u201d Fight fans are the most vocal fans in any sport. They\u2019re the most miserable\u2014they moan more than anyone, talk trash, and lie. It\u2019s the most toxic world you could imagine. But on the upside, they\u2019re passionate. They care about the sport, about the product, so you can focus on the positive and accept it. You have to appreciate what Dalton Smith has achieved as a boxing fan.<\/p>\n
The American move was a big part of what I wanted to do because my dad never did it. He never really cracked America or landed a big TV deal there. So every time we promote in New York, Brooklyn, or Las Vegas at the Fontainebleau\u2014this weekend, we\u2019re at Madison Square Garden with Teofimo Lopez vs Shakur Stevenson\u2014it\u2019s incredible. Madison Square Garden is steeped in fight history. I\u2019d always choose it over anywhere else. But, of course, Vegas is Vegas! I also enjoy going to new places. We\u2019ve got a couple of young fighters at the moment: Taylor Bevan from Southampton and Tiah-Mai Ayton from Bristol. We\u2019ve never promoted in Southampton before, and I know when you put a boxing fight in a town like that, the whole place comes out. London, Manchester, Liverpool\u2014they see fight nights all the time. But in a new place, everyone shows up, thinking, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a boxing event! We\u2019ve never had one before.\u201d I like that\u2014it\u2019s how I feel sometimes when we go to America or other countries. People there are genuinely welcoming.<\/p>\n
So, obviously, the upcoming fights\u2014particularly Teofimo Lopez against Shakur Stevenson. The one we\u2019re really aiming to make happen is Boots Ennis against Virgil Ortiz Jr. I think that\u2019s likely to be one of the best fights in American boxing history. Dmitry Bivol is returning, and Jesse \u201cBam\u201d Rodriguez is going for Undisputed. Then, when the time is right\u2014not just yet\u2014Anthony Joshua will make his return. There\u2019s no doubt about that, but he\u2019s going to need his time, both physically and emotionally.<\/p>\n