Promoters Eddie Hearn and Oscar De La Hoya have met to talk about the state of the sport and discuss key talking points.
In times through the past they have been rivals, but they got on the same page on DAZN for an interview with Chris Mannix.
DAZN broadcasts fights from both stables, De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Hearn’s Matchroom, and Hearn said that promoters in the sport should be working together more closely.
“The sharing of fights, as we’ve seen lately with ESPN and DAZN, makes it that much easier,” Hearn said, of broadcasters also coming uniting.
“There should be no barriers, particularly with us on the same network. I do feel in boxing now with the opening up of the platforms it is easier to make fights. But it’s all down to personal relationships.
“When there is peace, I think it’s good for the sport.”
Talking about the start of their relationship, De La Hoya admitted: “I did come out swinging, in the beginning.”
But he agreed with Hearn’s sentiments.
“The fight has to make sense, and I’ve been promoting now for 22 years and the reason why we’ve been successful is because we make the right fights; the right fights at the right time,” De La Hoya said.
“And if Eddie has fights or fighters that make sense to us, with Golden Boy, then we are open to making these happen on DAZN. We share the same platform, we should be working together more often, we should be the leaders of boxing and show the world that we want to make the great fights for the fans.”
Hearn said it was about trying to build the sport, and that companies working together would help everything else grow. He also referred to his recent working relationship with Frank Warren, inspired by the two coming together to stage bills in Saudi Arabia.
“We’re trying to build the profile of everything, the profile of our fighters, the profile of DAZN, my profile, and when I’ve got someone like Oscar having a pop at me, I never mind that,” Hearn continued. “It’s actually positive in a way. As long as we can understand it’s a game.
“If myself and Frank Warren can make a card, and it was done with His Excellency and the power and financial power of Saudi Arabia, once we broke bread, as we said, actually it’s quite enjoyable. There’s almost a feeling between us and Queensberry as if, ‘Why didn’t we do this earlier?’”
De La Hoya felt boxing’s top stars did want to fight each other, but that it was down to those out of the ring to unite to clear the obstacles.
“Platforms have to come together, promoters have to come together, fighters are willing to fight each other,” said the Hall of Famer. “That’s the message we send as promoters. Fighters are willing to fight each other, let’s just come together and make this happen.”
Then, asked by Mannix what the biggest changes De La Hoya has seen during his time in the sport, dating back since before winning gold at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, De La Hoya said: “The problem is the biggest fights are not getting made. We have to come together, that’s the bottom line.
“Fighters want to fight each other, they’re thinking more about the money, more about the bottom line, which makes it a little more difficult because sometimes they don’t understand the economics of the actual fight. They have all these whispers in their ears [from friends, advisors and managers etc] so it’s really difficult for a promoter or a network to make a fight happen, but over the years I’ve noticed now that I’ve worked with Al Haymon, Eddie Hearn and Bob Arum, all the promoters out there, and when you work together it’s like having various platforms promoting a pay-per-view, there’s more numbers, more pay-per-view buys, it can only get better for the fighters and for the actual sport.”
