Eddie Hearn says he used DAZN as the intermediary for negotiations between him and promoter Lou DiBella to broker a deal for George Kambosos Jr. vs. Devin Haney battle in June.
Hearn revealed that they had a good week of talks, and he says DAZN wants to endure that they get the deal for Haney (27-0, 15 KOs) to face IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight champion Kambosos.
ESPN reported last week that Vasily Lomachenko has agreed to a two-fight deal with Kambosos, and those two were likely to be fighting in early June in Australia.
But if what Hearn says is true about DAZN having good talks with DiBella, Haney could still have an outside chance of getting the Kambosos fight.
According to Hearn, DAZN doesn’t want Vasily Lomachenko to be the one that faces Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) because there’s an excellent chance of him beating the Australian.
Once the Top Rank promoted Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) captures the four belts in Kambosos’s possession, he’ll bring the titles back to ESPN.
Haney would then have the last remaining title, not in possession of an ESPN fighter, and obviously, that would be a bad idea to let him anywhere near Lomachenko.
“We had a good week of talks. DAZN got in the middle. It’s very important for them to make this fight happen because if it is Lomachenko against Kambosos, Lomachenko is a big favorite in that fight and all the belts could go back over to ESPN,” said Eddie Hearn to the DAZN Boxing Show.
“So, DAZN has been very proactive to try and make the Devin Haney vs. George Kambosos fight,” said Hearn. “It’s a fight they want badly, it’s a fight they want to make happen.
“We’re going back with figures and bits & pieces. I think DAZN is acting like a good middle-man buffer between myself and Lou DiBella rather than Lou losing his rag and me being stubborn. It’s a good model to use where we can all be sensible and see if there are any legs to get it over the line.
“The offers go backward and forwards with DAZN, and I think we have a good shot at it. I think George Kambosos is playing a game, ‘Who’s it going to be?” But he wants to be the clearcut undisputed, and he can only do that in a fight with Devin Haney.
Devin Haney stood up and said, ‘I’ll take the same money as Lomachenko,’ so no excuses. Devin is on the case big time. He doesn’t want to lose this fight and lose this opportunity.
“That’s why he wanted to speak up because there’s a lot of bull s*** floating around from people, and he wanted to clear up the situation. He’s ready to go to Australia, and he’s ready to take even less money than Jojo Diaz.
“This is for the undisputed championship. So that should tell you everything you need to know about whether Devin Haney wants this fight,” said Hearn.
