Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn shares his thoughts on Manny Pacquiao’s upcoming return against Mario Barrios, what he makes of Turki Alalshikh saying he’ll no longer support runners in the ring, and more during this conversation with Fight Hype. Here’s some of what Hearn had to say.
On Pacquiao vs Barrios for the WBC world title
“You can’t just be out for five years, like already be done and then come back, have a couple of exhibitions, look terrible, and then phone up the WBC and say ‘stick me in at number’ — what’s he five?
“But also, it is a business and I do understand but it just makes a little bit of a mockery of the world championships. And Barrios is not the greatest world champion but I think he’s better than what we saw the last time out, when he boxed on the Mike Tyson card, and I think he’ll beat Manny Pacquiao quite handily.
“I’m happy for Manny but it just should work out like that, and you’ll see a shot legend in the ring, which I think is quite sad. But, listen, if he wants to do it and he’s got the will to do it, good luck to him. But I just don’t think you should be out five years, not fight anybody, and then just stroll back into the rankings because you’re Manny Pacquiao.
“Do the fight, but it shouldn’t be for the world championship, in my opinion. But I don’t think he has a chance at all, even though Barrios has showed no great form. I think he’ll just be too young and strong for him.”
On Alalshikh expressing his displeasure with runners in the ring
“As a promoter whose job it is to guide the career of a fighter successfully and to see him, hopefully, to win it would be kind of moronic of me to say to a fighter ‘you’ve got to stop, you got to start trading, you’ve got to start fighting in the pocket.’ They’re like ‘what?!’ Like ‘that’s not what I do.’
“It’s not moronic of Turki because he’s paying the bill and he’s not really guiding the career of fighters. He’s just saying ‘I’m paying for entertainment, f-ckin’ entertain me. And I’m overpaying you, you better excite me and the fans.’ And then they don’t and it’s like ‘that was a f-ckin’ waste of money,’ and he’s very honest about it.
“I don’t think I could ever say that to a fighter but what you can say is, to all fighters, ‘just understand this: if you fight like that no one’s going to want to watch you, and if no one wants to watch you people aren’t buying tickets. And if people aren’t buying tickets and people aren’t tuning in then you’re not going to get opportunities and you’re not going to get the money you deserve.’”
