Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn recently said he has no real interest in bringing back his hugely popular and successful “Prizefighter” one-night elimination tournament. However, the plans Hearn does have, in working with Floyd Mayweather’s promotional outfit The Money Team, is to stage a one-night tournament featuring fighters from both teams meeting in world title fights. Hearn told The Mail that a tournament is being eyed for this September at a venue to be decided in the UK.
“We’re going to do something in September where we’re looking at doing a Floyd Mayweather team versus a Matchroom team in a five or six-man tournament in one night,” Hearn said. “They’ve got a whole list of guys in many different weights. The obvious ones are people like J’ Leon Love against Rocky Fielding at super-middleweight but then you’ve got people like Ashley Theophane who could get a fight with Ricky Burns if Burns wins that WBA world title. Then at 135-pounds, Floyd’s fighter Mickey Bey is fighting for the IBF [lightweight] title. If he wins, then we could look at him fighting one of our lightweights like Anthony Crolla or Luke Campbell. There are loads of different fights at different levels and I’m excited and they are too.”
Hearn said issues surrounding the format and the venue have to be sorted out before the planned tournament can go ahead, but both sides are very much on board for it. Mayweather would be over in the UK to co-promote the show or shows, and having the superstar in the country would obviously be a good thing for British boxing. Hearn said there are plans for a cash bonus to be paid to the team winners, which, he says, would be split between the fighters. It will be interesting to see how the TV details pan out, here and in the US. Will the tournament, or tournaments go out on free TV or will they be pay-per-view/box office?
Mayweather has plenty of great talent in his growing stable of fighters and so does Hearn, so there are some potentially great match-ups that can be made. Let’s hope the idea comes off and is a success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-v3hnmoyII
