Liam Paro’s IBF super-lightweight title victory has opened the door for Matchroom to stage in Australia the “big” fight Eddie Hearn has long wanted.
As is consistent with Matchroom’s geographical approach – Jaron “Boots” Ennis fights in Philadelphia later in July; in June 2023 Regis Prograis fought for the first time in New Orleans; it was in Puerto Rico where Subriel Matias lost his title to Paro in June – plans exist for the 28 year old to make the first defence of his title in Australia in November.
On Wednesday, Hearn spoke of the winner of the fight on August 24 between Jack Catterall and Prograis being Paro’s likeliest opponent. Paro had been scheduled to challenge Prograis for the WBC title in June 2023 until a career-threatening injury meant that he was replaced by Danielito Zorrilla, but having won as the underdog against Matias on an occasion when so few had predicted anything other than victory for the then-champion, his reward will not only be a homecoming fight, but if not Catterall or Prograis, then potentially, according to his promoter, Devin Haney, Richardson Hitchins, or even George Kambosos Jr.
“We’re speaking to various, different state governments at the moment about bringing a major fight to Australia,” the promoter told BoxingScene. “October; November time.
“He’s from Brisbane, so Queensland would be right at the top of the list. But Sydney have shown an interest, and many other areas in Australia – they’re very keen to bring international fights to the country.
“We want to bring him home for a world championship defence. So we’re looking at the winner of Catterall against Prograis; we’re looking at Devin Haney; Richardson Hitchins is the mandatory as well. Could it be a George Kambosos, all-Australian fight? It might make sense, if he steps up to 140lbs.”
Paro’s victory was the latest that ensured that Australian boxing remains on its upwards trajectory. Tim Tszyu’s defeat by Sebastian Fundora in April did little to harm his reputation owing to the cut that proved so influential, and while Kambosos Jr then lost to Vasiliy Lomachenko, the Ukrainian’s presence in Perth – complemented by Jai Opetaia establishing himself as the world’s leading cruiserweight – was the latest demonstration of the extent to which so passionate a sporting culture’s fight scene has continued to evolve.
In the modern era Manny Pacquiao, in a controversial defeat by Jeff Horn, and Roy Jones Jr, in an inevitable defeat by Danny Green, are among the faded, once-great fighters to have fought in Australia in one-off occasions that did so little to grow their sport’s popularity.
Haney twice travelling to Australia to defeat Kambosos in 2022 instead represented a fine fighter competing there when he was close to his peak. Similarly applied to Lomachenko in May, and later in 2024, Paro, an Australian in one of the world’s strongest weight divisions, will instead represent Matchroom’s draw.
“There’s massive potential in Australia,” said Hearn, who also promotes Skye Nicolson, Australia’s marketable, leading female fighter. “They’ve got a lot of good fighters; from a fan-base perspective, they’re very similar to [the U.K.]. They love their sport; they like a night out; they like a beer.
“The problem in Australia is all of the boxing’s behind a paywall. So even the average stuff is on pay-per-view. So the viewership is tiny, so you can’t build stars. Jai Opetaia, for example – he was on pay-per-view against Mairis Breidis at a time when no one really knew who Jai was. That fight – he broke his jaw in two places. He should have been a national hero.
“George Kambosos – all of these fights. They’re generating quite a lot of money because the pay-per-views are expensive. But that’s not good to build the profile of fighters, and the profile of the sport.
“We’ve been there already, and we’ve got another show with Tasman fighters in July. It’s a small show, with Justis Huni. But we want to do something big in Australia. Now we’ve got a world champion – we’ve not got many world champions from Australia – but now we’ve got a big male world champion, in probably one of the most lucrative divisions in boxing, we feel like now’s the time.”
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