Eddie Hearn says he and promoter Frank Warren are planning a second Matchroom vs. Queensberry 5 vs. 5 tournament event for October or November in Saudi Arabia or the UK.
Last weekend, Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing team was blanked by Queensberry by a 10-0 score, with all five of his fighters beaten in Riyadh. Hearn was pleased with the viewing numbers the event brought in and is eager to do another one.
It’s unclear why U.S promotional companies aren’t going to be used for the second 5 vs. 5 event, as it’s not quite as interesting if the same B-side fighters are trotted out.
“The Concept Worked So Well”
“The concept worked so well and #2 will be even bigger. We shall be back to settle the score,” said Hearn to Matchroom Boxing.
“He have given me fights that we [Matchroom] had no chance of winning and vice versa. We could have picked AJ, Andy Cruz, and Katie, but that’s not the idea of the concept. The idea is, ‘We have no idea who is going to win that fight,’”
In other words, Hearn can’t use his absolute best fighters in his Matchroom stable, like Anthony Joshua, for example, because it wouldn’t be competitive and fans might not be interested in watching sure-thing slam dunk victories.
Hearn says the idea isn’t to use the best fighters in fights, which would be a sure thing. The concept behind the 5 vs. 5 is to put together competition fights, which means selecting vulnerable fighters who aren’t viewed as the best.
Hearn says if he wanted, he could use heavyweight Anthony Joshua and lightweight contender Andy Cruz to get sure-thing victories. The fights have to be competition, meaning vulnerable fighters like we saw last weekend with Deontay Wilder, Ammo Williams, and Craig Richards being used.
The Queensberry team was also filled with good but not great fighters. Their team was obviously better on paper and proved to be too good in reality.
It would be nice for the fans to see better-quality fighters used for the 5 vs. 5 events because there was grumbling about non-world-class fighters on last weekend’s card. Ammo looked out of place against Hamzah Sheeraz, and 34-year-old Craig Richards, who is viewed as well past his prime, clearly didn’t belong on a PPV card.
Fans would be more interested in Hearn used his A-side guys, like Anthony Joshua going against Daniel Dubois in the main event or matching AJ against Tyson Fury. That would give fans their money’s worth for the 5 vs. 5 event, rather than using a washed Deontay Wilder against 41-year-old Zhilei Zhang in a fight that everyone knew who was going to win ahead of time.
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