Eddie Hearn has been doing the media rounds, just as much if not more so than, Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin, who is fighting on DAZN PPV, this Saturday, September 17th, at the T-Mobile Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hearn has been doing a slew of interviews that are very interesting, but most importantly, Hearn has been speaking on future fights, something the fans love, as it sets up what they can look forward to in the future.
“These guys, Charlo, Benavidez, they're fighting absolutely nobody,” said Hearn when talking to Fight Hub TV. “How can you criticize the resume of Canelo Alvarez and not criticize the resume of Charlo or Benavidez? I don’t even think that Benavidez wants a joke resume, Charlo I don’t know.”
What Hearn is saying is how a lot of fight fans feel. Though Jermall Charlo is at the middleweight division, a fight against David Benavidez would be massive, as would be a Benavidez fight versus Caleb Plant, but the undertone many fight fans believe to be true in this era is simple. The modern fighter looks at money first, legacy second. This has hurt the sport, as a lot of passionate fight fans have gone from being hardcore fight fans to casual fight fans based on a lukewarm feeling about the direction the sport is headed.
Jermall Charlo has fought two times in the past three years, and seemingly will not be in the ring in 2022, barring a fight date that needs to be announced sooner rather than later, as fall is essentially now here, and summer is over.
Benavidez is staying active but is not in with a caliber of opponent the fans nor Benavidez wants to be in with, but he seems to have trouble finding fighters to accept fights with him.
“Plant’s fighting Dirrell, good fight but we want to see Benavidez-Plant, we want to see Plant-Charlo.”
The major takeaway ‘fighters need to earn their shot with Canelo’, but in a world in which fighters in the main event rarely fight more than two times a year, that can be pushing it. We are now asking a deeper question: how do fighters get big fights in an era, in which fighters just wait for the most profitable fights out there, holding up divisions, and carefully steering their career?
I am not sure of the answer, but it is hurting the legacy of a lot of fighters.
