Promoter Eddie Hearn states it doesn’t make sense to sign the many PBC fighters on the market and not be able to honor his obligation to them by scheduling them for fights.
Hearn hints about not wanting to oversaturate his Matchroom company and be overwhelmed, trying to find opponents and dates for all of them, which could lead to them sitting on the shelf inactive.
If PBC goes out of business, as many believe they soon will, a flood of fighters will hit the market, looking for promotional companies to go to. Matchroom would be an ideal destination for many of them, but Hearn doesn’t sound eager to sign them.
Having spoiled ex-PBC fighters accustomed to getting big money for soft opponents, they might have a temper tantrum if Hearn signs them and expects them to fight quality oppoisition.
You can imagine what the reaction Gervonta Davis would have had if Hearn signed him and tried to match him against Shakur Stevenson, Devin Haney, or Vasily Lomachenko.
“A huge amount of fighters are available in the marketplace from PBC. It’s not just a case of signing all of them and not being able to honor your obligation to them because that was the problem before,” said Eddie Hearn to the media about him not planning on signing a bunch of the PBC fighters once they leave the company.
The Tank Davis Offer
“He wasn’t willing to negotiate. He asked for an offer. We can him an offer, which was $10 million plus upside on gate and pay-per-view. I think he would have made around $20 million for that fight, but he didn’t want to discuss it,” said Hearn about Gervonta Davis, turning down a big offer to fight Conor Benn.
“The problem with a lot of these guys is that they have someone in their ear that steers them away deliberately from other things for their own interest. So, Tank Davis should be taking control of his own interests, his own career, and having those conversations and those meetings.
“If he thinks Conor Benn is an easy fight for $20 million, I don’t know what he’s getting for fight Frank Martin. But it’s also up at 147 lbs, and maybe he’s not comfortable up at 147 lbs. But I want to see Tank get active as well. All these guys should be fighting three times a year,” said Hearn.