Eddie Hearn Has Another Hot One On His Hands This Weekend
Before I start, I will give credit where credit is due... The young lady in the thumbnail is Ebanie Bridges...
Ebanie was one of the first female fighters to strip down to her panties at weigh-ins, which made her promoter, Eddie Hearn, avoid eye contact as if a mere glance at her dumper would give him COVID-19 and an expensive divorce proceeding…
Moving on from that… I sat down with Eddie Hearn this week to talk about whether or not he tainted Ryan Garcia's blood samples before the Haney fight AND to break down the latest Saudi card that would've never happened if it wasn't for the bottomless pockets of one Turki Alalshikh.
This cat went up to the 2 biggest boxing promoters in England… Eddie Hearn from Matchroom and Frank Warren from Queensberry… Two guys who somehow never met face-to-face but have had nothing but negative shit to say about the other in the press for decades. Alalshikh approached both with a fucking BAG and simply said, "Each of you round up your finest 5 fighters in corresponding weight classes, and I'll host a head-to-head 5 fight tourney in Riyadh on the undercard of Dimitry Bivol versus Artur Beterbiev for the undisputed light heavyweight title."
Since they both enjoy money, Frank and Eddie agreed, and as bad luck would have it, the Main Event had to be postponed after Beterbiev ruptured a meniscus. But that doesn't even matter because, for the first time in recent memory, that 5-fight undercard is just as intriguing as the Main Event would've been.
So while Artur Beterbiev nurses a sore knee, Dmitry Bivol will now fight a last-minute replacement in Malik Zinad for Bivol's WBA light heavyweight title… I know very little about Zinad outside of the fact he is a 30-year-old Libyan fighter and has an undefeated record of 22-0 with 16 KOs. Since none of those 22 fights took place anywhere near the US, I haven't witnessed his opponents' quality in Malta or Belgium. But Bivol is an overwhelming favorite on DraftKings (#DKPartner), so I am assuming those Maltese opponents were dogshit.
(This is a Maltese.)
And here is the schedule for the Matchroom vs Queensberry portion of the card… All of these fights are extremely competitive according to the most recent lines…
- The most attractive matchup is my good friend, the well-spoken Zhilei "Big Bang" Zhang vs. Deontay Wilder at Heavyweight
- Daniel Dubois vs. Filip Hrgovic also at Heavyweight, and the winner could fight Anthony Joshua for the vacant IBF heavyweight title
- Hamzah Sheeraz vs. Austin "Ammo" Williams at Middleweight
- Raymond Ford vs. Nick Ball for Ford's WBA featherweight title
- and Willy Hutchinson vs. Craig Richards at Light-heavyweight
There isn't a stinker in the bunch, so maybe grab a couch (starting at 2 PM EST time) on Saturday and dial up yet another quality night of boxing on DAZN.
If this card is successful, the Saudis have expressed interest in a similar card down the road pitting the finest fighters from the US versus the cream of the crop in the UK… Almost a Revolutionary War: Part Deux… And the very thought of that has me going straight from six to midnight in my pants.
Enjoy the fights and take a report.
-Large