Eddie Hearn on Canelo Alvarez, Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov and Riyadh Season

LOS ANGELES – Matchroom Boxing head Eddie Hearn will serve as the lead promoter for Riyadh Season’s debut event in the United States at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The card will be headlined by the Hearn-led WBA junior middleweight titlist Israil Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs) taking on three-division champion Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), who will be making his 154-pound debut. The vacant interim WBO title will be on the line as well.

The star-studded show will be distributed on DAZN, ESPN and PPV.com, and feature fights between Isaac Cruz and Jose Valenzuela, Andy Ruiz Jr. and Jarrell Miller, Jared Anderson and Martin Bakole, and the likes of Andy Cruz and David Morrell will be featured in separate matchups as well.

Hip-hop star Eminem is also set to perform a 30-minute set before the main event.

BoxingScene met with Hearn before the fight-week hustle and bustle kicked off to discuss some major storylines.

BoxingScene: You’re all in on Madrimov because he’s the fighter you’re promoting. But why do you think Madrimov can beat a generational great like Crawford?

Eddie Hearn: Timing. My job is to champion Israil Madrimov. I also understand he is a massive underdog. You ask yourself, is he technically good enough, has IQ, is strong, has a chin? He ticks a lot of those boxes. It’s not like he’s going in there as a non-puncher or not a strong 154-pounder. He is someone who can technically match, or get close to matching, Terence Crawford. But Crawford is a generational great. That’s why he is heavily favored in this fight. I think, ideally, you would have probably wanted two or three more fights for Madrimov. But when you get a chance like this, you have to take it.

BS: Crawford wants to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Does Canelo like that fight?  Not so much, because he feels he won’t get credit for beating the smaller Crawford. Do you think Canelo will take the Crawford fight after facing Edgar Berlanga on Sept. 14?

Hearn: I think Canelo will take any fight if the money is right. He has no fear. He definitely does not have a fear of Terence Crawford. I think he is more concerned about the plaudits he will get for his victory. If he wins that fight, it’s like he beat a 154-pounder, and a 147-pounder who just came up. If he loses that fight, it’s like, ‘Oh, he got beat by a 154-pounder.’ With Canelo, he selects fighters on the styles that he likes. I genuinely think that’s why he chose Edgar Berlanga and Jaime Munguia. He likes guys that come forward and fight him. I don’t think he likes facing fighters who move. His body is probably not quite what it was. When Jermell Charlo ran off the back foot, Canelo didn’t like it or enjoy it. He wants someone that comes to fight. He’ll fight anyone. He also in his head has a number that he thinks fights are worth. It’s just whether that’s realistic.

BS: How would you describe your on-again, off-again relationship with Alvarez, who will next fight Matchroom’s Berlanga on a PBC-led show?

Hearn: My relationship with Canelo is really honest. I consider him a friend. He’s one of the greatest fighters of our generation. He’s a pound-for-pound great. He’s a legend. I really understand him in terms of when we do business together. We get on well – that’s why we can always work together and shake hands, because we do good business together. I don’t get offended when another better opportunity comes along for him. He says, ‘Eddie, I’m sorry. I have to take this.’ All things equal, I think he would always choose us. But when there is a better opportunity, he won’t hesitate to choose that one. It’s not a loyalty thing, either. It’s an honesty thing, and ‘I’m going to do the right thing for me.’ When we signed Berlanga, I promised him we would get him the Canelo fight. But I presumed that would be us promoting Canelo and picking Berlanga. We did it the hard way and went and got a deal with PBC for the fight. Yeah, it’s an interesting dynamic. I will be rooting for Edgar Berlanga come Sept. 14 while being respectful to the true great Canelo Alvarez.

BS: Why do you believe the Canelo Alvarez vs. David Benavidez fight is not happening?

Hearn: I think that sometimes in boxing, not ego, but, like, things will be said between teams and people will feel disrespected. When you feel disrespected, sometimes you don’t want to give them the opportunity – or you want to make sure you get paid for that opportunity. I think Canelo sees the potential financial opportunities around that fight, and he probably wants to build it and say, ‘I’ll take that fight, but pay for it.’ It’s a dangerous fight. Benavidez is now campaigning at 175 pounds. He’s a huge guy, and in the ring without a rehydration clause, he is going to be the bigger guy. I think Canelo knows that’s a tough fight. Whether or not it’s real that he wants $150 million, or he put that out there to get close to $100 million, he wouldn’t hesitate to take that fight. There is no part of him that feels like he wouldn’t win that fight. He understands that rivalry means big money.

BS: Benavidez is now officially campaigning at 175 pounds and he’s lined up for the winner of Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol as the WBC mandatory. Are you confident you can deliver Bivol-Benavidez should the Matchroom-promoted Bivol win?

Hearn: I know that His Excellency Turki Alalshakh wants the winner of the Bivol-Beterbiev fight to take on Jai Opetaia at cruiserweight as well. His Excellency has all kinds of different ideas. I’m sure His Excellency likes Benavidez as well. He’s a fun fighter. But I don’t think Benavidez beats Dmitry Bivol, to be honest. But he’s a very good fighter. Let’s see if our man can do his business first against Beterbiev on Oct. 12. There are huge fights out there.

BS: Are you confident Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury will fight in the first half of 2025 regardless of results for both of their upcoming fights?

Hearn: I think the reality is that if Joshua beats Daniel Dubois on Sept. 21, which I believe he will, and if Fury beats Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch on Dec. 21, which I think he can – even as the underdog – then that fight is next, and it becomes the unification for the undisputed heavyweight championship. His Excellency will make sure that fight gets made. If one of them wins and one of them loses, it can still get made. But right now, we just have to focus on a great moment in the heavyweight division. Through Riyadh Season, we’ve seen some tremendous heavyweight fights get made.

BS: Now that the Gervonta Davis and Vasiliy Lomachenko fight has fallen apart, do you plan on being an active participant with free agent Shakur Stevenson to deliver him the “Tank” Davis fight?

Hearn: Obviously, we hope the Canelo-Berlanga fight can add to the fights that can be made between Matchroom and PBC – which is a hell of a lot of them. I think that we are the right choice for Shakur, no doubt about that, and he would openly admit that. His team would openly admit it. But we are not the right choice if we can’t deliver the right fights. We’re talking at the moment, as he is talking to everybody else. I don’t think he necessarily needs us to make the Tank fight, but I am a pretty good person to have on your team. And I think we can do great things with Shakur Stevenson because I think he is a generational great as well.

BS: How would you describe your working relationship with Devin Haney moving forward?

Hearn: Look, we didn’t bid on the Haney-Sandor Martin fight because we didn’t have an obligation to bid. The value of having a long-term promoter is to have the security of that kind of thing. He wants to be a free agent, which I think can work for you and not work for you. And that’s fine. I don’t rule out working with him in the future. We have [IBF junior welterweight champion] Liam Paro as a fight for him. Devin will be back, but I think he might not fight again this year, in my opinion. But at the same time, he might fight again in November or December. He’s a great fighter and good young man, and I hope to work with him again. I guess [the Ryan Garcia rematch has to happen for Haney], but who knows what’s going to happen with Ryan? … It’s a long way back. Ryan is a great fighter and a massive asset to boxing, and I wish him all of the best.

BS: How do you plan on guiding Jaron Ennis’ career and undisputed aspirations moving forward since the other welterweight titlists are tied to PBC and Top Rank?

Hearn: I hope so. That’s definitely the plan. We’ve had some very brief conversations with PBC about Mario Barrios and Eimantas Stanionis. We’d love to make those fights. You hope the other champions would want to attempt to unify the division. The problem is that everyone knows how good Ennis is. Everyone is going to want a lot of money to fight him. The good news is that he’s generating big gates and did a great number on DAZN [for the David Avanesyan fight]. They are 100 percent behind him. Everybody seems to be working together right now. His Excellency wants Ennis to fight Crawford, but I would like Ennis to secure at least one title unification at 147 pounds before he moves up.

BS: There is demand for a dream fight between junior bantamweight champion Jesse Rodriguez to take on undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoye Inoue. Is “Bam” open to adding the seven pounds to face Inoue at 122 pounds?

Hearn: Bam is one of the most enjoyable fighters we’ve worked with. The rise has been incredible. I just see him getting better and better. He is still a very young man. I think the move to junior featherweight right now is a big one. But he will get there – there is no doubt that. It’s just a case of whether he gets there in time [for Inoue]. I think Inoue should concentrate on fighting Murodjon Akhmadaliev next. That’s the fight he should be taking.

BS: How many Riyadh Season cards can we expect to be staged in the United States each year moving forward?  

Hearn: I don’t think you guys understand what you are about to see this week. It’s going to blow your mind. You have to understand: I have been involved in these Riyadh Season shows for a while now and every show blows my mind. The card is going to be unbelievable and the fights are incredible. This is the first one Matchroom is involved with operationally and working on behalf of Riyadh Season. This will be the first taste of Riyadh Season [in the United States], and I think you are going to love it. You never know, honestly [how many we can expect in the U.S. every year]. It’s the first of many, for sure. His Excellency has a desire and appetite for boxing.

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.