It’s a ‘Three-Peat’ for Eddie Hearn, the 2018 TSS Promoter of the Year

One billion.

That was the glitzy number rolling off the lips of men and women in sharp business suits as they knocked back glasses of champagne atop a rooftop garden in midtown Manhattan back in early May. It was here, in the commercial capital of the world, that UK promoter Eddie Hearn announced an eight-year deal with subscription streaming platform, DAZN, in a play to dramatically alter how boxing is consumed and disseminated  — all, yes, to the tune of one billion walloping dollars. The fine print let you know, of course, that only two years were guaranteed, among other caveats. But who was counting? Certainly not Hearn (pictured with his father, Matchroom Sport founder Barry Hearn), whose enterprising ways once again, for the third year in a row, make him TSS 2018 Promoter of the Year.

Some readers will find the honor redundant, perhaps even dubious. But if Hearn’s work in 2016 and 2017 at Matchroom might be charitably described as “domestic-level,” his endeavors this past year were far more international and innovative in scope.

No one would have begrudged Hearn if he had decided to stay put in an Essex abode and oversee, twice a year, what is by now one of the great sporting spectacles today: an Anthony Joshua fight, which depending on whether it takes place at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff or at Wembley Stadium in London, typically draws upwards of 75,000 spectators. But the inexhaustible Hearn, smelling fame and fortune across the Atlantic, had other ambitions in mind other than counting “AJ” gate receipts and PPV revenue from the comfort of his chaise lounge.

“I am trying to do what no UK promoter has ever done,” said Hearn shortly after announcing the DAZN deal. “Everybody wants us to fail, just like they did when we came into the UK five or six years ago, but this deal gives me a chance. In six years’ time we want to be the No 1 promoter in America.”

That last statement might make a veteran US promoter like Bob Arum keel over on the floor in stitches. But the fact remains that Hearn arrives with more ammunition than any British outsider since the colonial days. By linking up with DAZN — a startup bankrolled by billionaire Len Blavatnik and helmed by ex-ESPN head John Skipper — Hearn boasts the infrastructure to grow his firm into an American and perhaps even global powerhouse. But it is his position at the forefront of the new technology that DAZN represents that makes Hearn the most noteworthy promoter of the past year. If streaming is the future (as seemingly everyone in the sports media aisle seems to think), Hearn wants to be sure that he has a seat at the table.

Through Hearn, DAZN, the self-styled “Netflix of Sports,” has bulldozed its way into the American boxing market at a time in which the industry has never looked more in flux and fragmented. The news that HBO would no longer showcase boxing sent shockwaves across the industry, but for purely sentimental reasons. In reality, the boxing business had long outgrown the diminishing offerings from HBO. How Hearn will steer his company in this new landscape as DAZN’s chief content provider will be a key story in the coming years.

Hearn launched the first DAZN boxing card in September with the Anthony Joshua-Alexander Povetkin fight in Cardiff. October was even busier. The first DAZN show in the US was held in Chicago and showcased the likes of Artur Beterbiev, Danny Roman, Katie Tayler, and Jarrell Miller, as well as the main event pairing Jessie Vargas against Thomas Dulorme. A few weeks later, Hearn promoted one of the last HBO shows at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden featuring the tightly-contested middleweight title match between his charge Daniel Jacobs and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. The following weekend, Hearn flew up to Boston to stage another middleweight showdown on DAZN headlined by new signee Demetrius Andrade. Tevin Farmer, another DAZN signee, fought on the undercard.

But what has truly earned Hearn goodwill with boxing’s finicky hardcore fanbase was his decision to put his weight behind the World Boxing Super Series, the much-lauded tournament series that lacked a significant and serious broadcast partner in its first iteration. An otherworldly talent like knockout artist Naoya Inoue, who is currently participating in the bantamweight tournament, deserves to seen by a US audience.

In a hint at his global designs, Hearn announced recently that Matchroom/DAZN would begin staging eight boxing cards a year in Italy, where DAZN currently has a significant presence in the soccer scene (Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is a global ambassador for DAZN).

But for all the initial fanfare, the past year for Hearn has not been without its learning curves. His bold promise (or was it brash gloating?) to lure marketable US fighters aligned with Al Haymon, including Gervonta Davis, Adrien Broner, and the Charlo twins, fell flat on its face when the PBC announced its output deal with Fox, in addition to renewing its commitment with Showtime. And while Beterbiev, Andrade, Farmer, and Miller are nothing to scoff at, they are hardly the kind of fighters entrusted to bring major credibility and recognition to a brand sorely in need of both. Indeed, the splash that DAZN was looking for would come later in the year and without Hearn’s involvement: the signing of Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to an exclusive contract estimated to be worth $365 million.

Furthermore, though Hearn signing unified cruiserweight titleholder Oleksandr Uysk certainly deserves praise, his current roster of US fighters are not as impressive as he would have you believe. The November 17 show pitting a mismatch between Jarrell Miller and Bogdan Dinu and as well as a tawdry assortment of over-the-hill fighters, like Brandon Rios and Gabriel Rosado, in boxing backwater Kansas City was an obvious clunker.

Still, there has been no promoter in 2018 more joined to the efforts, for better or worse, to reinvent the sport. Who knows, maybe six years from now Hearn will find himself back safely ensconced in his London office happily hyping a homegrown contender from Yorkshire, and DAZN, blanched and faded from years of financial hemorrhaging, will have been auctioned off to some Silicon Valley unicorn at pennies to the dollar. Maybe.

In any case, should Hearn seek to add another TSS trophy to his Chippendale cabinet for a four-peat, he need only do one simple thing in 2019: cut the dillydallying and make the heavyweight matchup that everyone wants to see in Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder. Like many of the sport’s most colorful impresarios before him, Hearn has attracted both admiration and disgust at a fever pitch. He will have much more of the former when he truly decides to play ball with Wilder’s handlers and consummate the one fight that would benefit the sport as a whole.

But that is supposing he cares about such a thing. Most promoters, as they have shown time and time again, do not. We will find out soon if Hearn is any different.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this article in the Fight Forum, CLICK HERE