Eddie Hearn has been backed to defeat Jake Paul in a boxing fight - but only if it is agreed at a weight of 220lb.
The Matchroom Boxing promoter worked with Paul earlier this year to promote Katie Taylor's historic victory over Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden back in April. During their time co-promoting the show, the pair comically came head-to-head in a mock face-off and were even sat together in a join interview where they discussed a potential fight.
Hearn has admitted he has only fought in a few amateur fights during his life, but knocked down fellow Matchroom kingpin Frank Smith in a sparring session they held earlier this year. And Smith has joked that Hearn would be knocked out if the pair met at Paul's normal fighting weight of 190lb. "Eddie wins for me," Smith said during an exclusive chat with Mirror Fighting at a press conference in London.
"At 220lb yeah Eddie. However we might end up with a Hasim Rahman situation, I don't think Eddie could make 200 or 190lb that Jake Paul fights at. And I do believe that if the fight is held at 190lb that Jake Paul knocks him out." Hearn showed what he was made of in a sparring session with Smith earlier this year in which he inflicted damage on his fellow Matchroom colleague.
Hearn has previously spoken about entering the ring in a fight with rival promoter Leonard Ellerbe, with the pair having had choice words with each other on social media. However Hearn believes a fight with the high-profile star Paul would sell one million pay--per-view buys in tHE uk, but is confident he would get knocked out.
"I've thought about it but he would knock me out," Hearn said during an appearance on the Happy Hour podcast. "I can fight a very little bit, I've been around boxing and I've had a couple of fights but I'm very, very bad. I said to my old man, how much, do you think, to get in the ring with Jake Paul, because it would do massive numbers.
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"Can you imagine the UK audience, the thought of me getting knocked out? It would be one of them where we don't care who gets knocked out, we can't stand them both, someone will get knocked out.
"[I'd do it for] £10million, and it would do one million pay-per-view buys in the UK, the numbers would add up, but I would probably have to live the fact he was going to spark me out bad. I would have a right go, I wouldn't be defending myself and trying to survive; I'd stick it to him and get cleaned out, spectacularly, probably facedown."
Paul has become less friendly to Hearn since working with his rival promoter on a show, having hit out at Hearn's opinion that he was an "average" fighter after his five professional outings.
