LAS VEGAS – Eddie Hearn certainly has experienced hectic hours during his many years leading the Matchroom Boxing promotion, but Thursday’s volatility definitely qualified as a whirlwind.
Minutes before presiding over the news conference for Saturday’s pivotal super middleweight test for Los Angeles’ top-ranked Diego Pacheco versus gritty veteran Steven Nelson, Hearn finalized details of two rather massive April events he’ll be leading.
On April 12, his unbeaten IBF welterweight titleholder Jaron “Boots” Ennis, 33-0 (29 KOs), will seek a title-unifying triumph against unbeaten WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis, 15-0 (9 KOs), at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.
Two weeks later, on April 26, Hearn’s middleweight Conor Benn, 23-0 (14 KOs), will renew his burning British familial rivalry with Chris Eubank Jnr, 34-3 (25 KOs), at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“We should get 70,000 people in there,” Hearn told BoxingScene on Thursday in a conversation following the animated Pacheco-Nelson session at The Cosmopolitan.
That’s quite a successful pivot from the expectation that Hearn would be involved in another epic clash of Brits, but that was before Anthony Joshua was knocked out by IBF heavyweight belt holder Daniel Dubois in September and prior to Tyson Fury announcing he was retiring following his December 21 unanimous decision title loss to three-belt champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Hearn, of course, is poised to make moves for Joshua as the days pass by.
First, his attention is on Pacheco, 22-0 (18 KOs), the 23-year-old South-Central L.A. product ranked the No. 1 WBO contender to three-belt champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
In listening to Terence Crawford stablemate Nelson deliver an impassioned speech contrasting Pacheco’s more comfortable career position, arguing, “I can’t afford to lose,” Hearn said his young fighter needs this veteran test.
“I love the fight because Steven Nelson is good, but he’s really never gotten the opportunity,” said Hearn, who watched Nelson, 36, open Turki Alalshikh’s August 3 card in Los Angeles with a fifth-round knockout of Marcus Vazquez Rodriguez. “‘Bud’ [Crawford] and [2023 trainer of the year Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre] have been saying to me for years, ‘Sign this guy, he’s really good.
“His profile is not that peaked, but everyone in boxing knows how good he is and I need that for Diego – not just to be in these fights. But I need him tested. Because if he’s going to go on and fight Canelo and these [other top-ranked super-middleweights], I don’t him to not be tested, to step up and then it feels like it’s too early for you. So I’m hoping it’s a big test for him, and I believe it will be.”
Speaking of big tests, on the heels of some criticism for fighting an overmatched IBF-mandated contender and rejecting bouts against unbeaten 154-pounder Vergil Ortiz Jnr and two-division champion Teofimo Lopez, Ennis is going after the most accomplished other welterweight in a bid to unify.
“We were under so much pressure because ‘Boots’ made it clear from the start with me, ‘It’s so important for me to unify,’” Hearn said. “We dealt with the Karen [Chukhadzhian mandatory] fight [in November] because if we were going to unify, we had to do that fight.
“The Ortiz fight came up, and [Ennis] said, ‘I’ll do it, but you know what it means to me to unify.’”
Hearn said he told Ennis flatly, “If we turn this down, we’ve got to chase unification, but I can’t guarantee you I can get you these fights.”
Stanionis and WBC titleholder Mario Barrios Jnr are promoted by Premier Boxing Champions, while new WBO titlist Brian Norman Jnr is a Top Rank product.
“Then the Teofimo Lopez fight got offered and [Ennis] said, ‘I like that fight, but you know what I want to do. Make it happen,’” Hearn said.
Hearn connected with PBC’s Luis DeCubas Jnr and made the deal.
“Respect to Stanionis, because he’s the best welterweight in the world outside ‘Boots,’ in my opinion,” Hearn said. “Stanionis is the tough one, just so good, very tough. Eastern European. Good work rate. Good chin. Punches very hard. And it’s the Ring Magazine championship.”
Hearn noted Ring champions of the past in the glamour welterweight division: Floyd Mayweather Jnr, Terence Crawford, Sugar Ray Leonard, Wilfred Benitez, Sugar Ray Robinson.
“Such a prestigious belt, such a prestigious weight class,” Hearn said. “I’m so pleased to have made that fight happen. It’s a big fight for American boxing.”
Considering that, Hearn is placing it in a venue rich with history, Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, a near homecoming fight for Ennis.
Hearn said he considered taking the fight to Philadelphia, but this would’ve been Ennis’ third fight in nine months there.
Following that, there’s Benn-Eubank, a bout that has gripped England’s attention as the sons of former champions Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank are bound to square off.
“That’s got everything: the controversy [over Benn’s 2022 positive doping test that scrapped the first attempt], the hate, the history, the legacy,” Hearn said. “In Tottenham, it’s going to be a massive night.”
And that brought the topic back to former heavyweight champion Joshua, who Hearn announced will start training camp “in the next couple of weeks.”
Joshua will be watching the February 22 IBF title defense by Dubois versus former WBO titleholder Joseph Parker “very closely … we’d like the winner … and we’ll wait to see if Fury’s retirement is Fury’s retirement … he’s capable of doing anything at any time.”
Hearn said if he can’t get Joshua to leap over Usyk for the Dubois-Parker winner and if Fury remains sidelined, he’ll look elsewhere, knowing Alalshikh has mentioned former WBC belt holder Deontay Wilder as an opponent and assured that bout will intrigue the boxing masses.
“Wasn’t a fight we considered pre-Dubois, but of course it’s intriguing,” Hearn said.
Hearn is also eager to promote the planned September fight between four-division champions Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford, calling it a match of “generational greats” before Crawford approached and kidded with Hearn.
With that, the promoter paused to reflect ever so quickly as the tornado of activity resumes.
“Amazing times in boxing, and have you ever heard boxing talked about on this level? I love the UFC/MMA, but what’s got the biggest buzz at this moment?” Hearn asked, answering, “Boxing by a mile.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
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