Frank Warren has accused his promotional rival Eddie Hearn of disrespecting boxing fans, as the two men prepare to lock horns with rival pay-per-view shows on December 22.
On the same night that Warren has scheduled Josh Warrington’s IBF featherweight world title fight with Carl Frampton, Hearn is putting on a heavyweight rematch between domestic favourites Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora.
Warren announced his show long before Hearn’s and has branded his rival’s decision as “senseless”.
“It's stupid,” he said. “No one wins, it's impossible for anyone to be a winner out of this.
“I'm using hypothetical numbers: if there are half-a-million fans who want to watch it, 250,000 watch one, 250,000 watch the other, they're not going to be able to afford both.
“Then we've both lost 250,000 punters. It's stupid, senseless, if they were running on that date, I'd have never run on that date. We are not the cause of this.
“It's disrespectful to the fans. That's what it is. If you had any feeling about the sport you wouldn't do stuff like this, it's senseless.”
And yet despite his frustration and fear of lost earnings, Warren has said that it is “obvious” what fight fans should put their hand in their pocket for.
“What are you going to watch? Dereck Chisora, who has won one meaningful fight out of eight in his career. And that one was a bingo punch, a lottery punch against [Carlos] Takam. And Dillian Whyte, who was all over the place in his last fight against [Joseph] Parker, he's already been stopped by [Anthony] Joshua.
“They're saying it's an eliminator to face Joshua, it's all like the Lord Mayor's Parade. It's blatant recycling. They're a green company, Matchroom, they recycle [fights]. They're doing the same with Kell Brook trying to do a fight with [Amir] Khan.
“We are delivering the best fighting the best, this is proper pay-per-view.”
