Eddie Hearn has always been someone who can read a trend, a trait he learned from his astute father, Barry. So, when he agrees with Bob Arum that Showtime will follow HBO out of boxing within a year, it’s worth listening.
The business is changing faster than anyone would have imagined even a month ago, when HBO ended 45 years of jostling with Showtime as boxing’s biggest cash cow, and, as Hearn said of octogenarian Arum on Sirius XM Boxing Radio, “I have to agree with his point on Showtime. The money moving in the circles of boxing is crazy.”
Hearn ignores the fact that much of that money is Matchroom’s and that of his US TV partner, Dazn, who showed Saturday’s Andrade-Kautondokwa middleweight title fight in Boston and recently signed Saul “Canelo” Álvarez to a five-year deal for $365m.
Hearn added, “I think HBO looks at it and said, ‘This is nuts. We spend so much money to be competitive. We don’t feel like we gave value as a platform.’ So, I wouldn’t bet against Showtime looking at the sport in a year’s time and just saying, ‘We can’t be major players. And if we can’t be major players then we’re out.’
“They’re committed to the sport for now. HBO leaving was a big shock. I think it was sad for boxing. There were many people that were over the moon that HBO was gone, but not me. HBO has been a major part of boxing and a major brand. I really feel that the more competition in boxing, the more broadcasters spending money, you know the better shape the sport is in.”
The Kid’s all right
When Billy Joe Saunders taunted an innocent women in the streets of Nottingham with crude inducements of crack in return for sex, he had for cruising company in his Rolls Royce Kid Galahad, who did neither his nom de guerre nor his real name (Abdul Barry Awad) much good in a minor supporting role.
Saunders was fined £100,000 for his prank and subsequently was denied a chance to recoup that money when he failed a test for oxilofrine, which prevented him defending his world middleweight title in Boston at the weekend against Demetrius Andrade. He claimed he took the banned stimulant – an amphetamine that burns fat and helps endurance – out of competition in a decongestant. That is some sort of towering irony.
Galahad, meanwhile, did not slip up on the Boston undercard. In a near-faultless performance, the unbeaten Sheffield stylist outboxed, out-thought and outlasted Freddie Roach’s classy, long-armed featherweight from Liberia, Toka Khan Clary, to put himself in line for a world title shot at either Josh Warrington or Carl Frampton, who meet in Manchester in December.
Galahad, humbled it seems, paid homage to the man who “invented” him, the late Brendan Ingle, and then observed in an interview with Sky Sport’s Adam Smith: “Inside that ring is like my second home. You could put me in the ring with anybody. You could put me in there with Tyson Fury, and I’ll move around and try and get out of the way. Put me in with AJ? I’ll last 12 rounds with AJ.”
Anthony Joshua would smile at that cockiness, but it is a hallmark of a fighter who might be one win away from a world title, which Ingle always believed was his destiny - if he could tame his cheeky tendencies. Galahad did not do that in his stunt with Saunders; but he got down to business when it mattered in Boston, before letting his ego loose again.
In answer to praise from Paulie Malignaggi that he had admirable mental strength, he sounded eerily like his childhood hero, Naseem Hamed: “That’s God-given. You can’t train that. You’ve either got it or you haven’t.” He’s got it. His challenge is to make sure he uses it properly.
And Billy Joe? He surely regretted his recent indiscretions when he watched Andrade coast to a points win over substitute Walter Kautondokwa to take his vacated WBO belt.
The Irish Duran?
Sometimes fighters move and hit so much like great champions of the past it is tempting to burden them with comparisons that can prove unhelpful. But there is no denying there is at least the stamp of Roberto Duran oozing through the work of the Irishman Michael Conlan.
Nine fights into his pro career the unbeaten ex-Olympian continues to impress – and it is clear he and his trainer, Adam Booth (an ardent Duran fan), have an understanding it can take 20 or more campaigns to develop.
In breaking down Nicola Cipolletta over seven rounds in front of an echoing arena on the undercard of the Rob Brant’s upset of the WBA middleweight champion Ryota Murata in Las Vegas, Conlan showed the sort of intelligence Duran aficionados would recognise. Rumbling forward in the pocket while pumping quick shots to head and body and slipping counters with composure, he had way too much class for the Italian, who spent more time going backwards than Steve Redgrave.
Cipolletta, a rangy, stick-and-run merchant who can drive opponents to distraction, never got to Conlan, who was patient and lethal. Behind a stab-jab to the belly, he first worked Cipolletta over around the elbows, draining him of ambition, and battered him with head shots to finish the job.
The American TV commentator’s daft comparison on BoxNation between the fretful, sweating Cipolletta and the peerless Willie Pep was embarrassing. Pep was a defensive genius. Cipolletta, with all due respect, looked like a sausage bouncing on a barbecue grill. After soaking up too many unanswered blows, he made his contribution all the more farcical by protesting the stoppage with push-ups in centre ring. Contrary to what he might think, boxing is not an aerobics exercise.
As for Conlan, he is not just fit, strong and clever. He is ruthless. Just like Duran, in fact.
