Eddie Hearn Offers Advice To PBC On Amazon Prime Deal

Matchroom Sport chairman Eddie Hearn says Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) must “promote better” for their new business endeavor to succeed.

Last week, Al Haymon’s PBC announced it had struck a multi-year deal with the e-commerce streaming platform Prime Video. The first event takes place in March.

Hearn got a head start on the streaming business. Matchroom Boxing ended its 25-year run with Sky Sports in the United Kingdom in 2021. It inked a five-year deal with DAZN worth more than $100 million.

Hearn Predicts Difficult Road Ahead

The news came as PBC’s longtime broadcasting partner, Showtime, is shutting down its boxing operations at the end of the year. While Hearn touted the deal as a positive for the sport, Hearn has long criticized Haymon for not collaborating to produce major fights.

However, cross-promotional fights are rare in the modern era because most promoters have exclusive network deals that don’t permit them to reach across the aisle to conduct business. This is part of the reason why some significant events (Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao and Errol Spence Jr. vs. Terence Crawford) took more than five years to make.

Nevertheless, Hearn provided some advice for his promotional rival.

“I think they could promote a little better,” Hearn told NY Fights. “I think they make really good fights; they got a nice brand. I just want to know who is actually promoting PBC. You’re kind of relying on social media and your digital engines to promote rather than — I know I talk a lot — but you really need someone out there like actually promoting these fights.

“I hate seeing press conferences when it’s like someone who works for a TV company up at the presser asking questions rather than an actual promoter. I’ve got a big ego, but it’s not just 'cause I just want to hear my own voice. But that’s my job, the showman to say, ‘Right! This is (what) we got [to do]!’

“I feel like they need to without maybe the power of a bigger broadcaster like Fox or like Showtime. Now they’re going to be tested in that respect because although Amazon is a big platform, I don’t know how invested they’re gonna be in pushing that particular deal.”

Hearn: ‘Fighters Are Drastically Overpaid'

Hearn does have a point. Twelve to 14 events are expected during the first year between pay-per-views and regular fights that will be available to Prime Video subscribers. That’s not a high number considering PBC has a stable of more than 150 fighters, including some of the sport’s biggest and rising stars like Canelo Álvarez, Gervonta Davis, Terence Crawford, and David Benavidez.

Hearn believes PBC will struggle to keep their fighters active, which was already a longstanding issue.

“I think it’s a revenue share deal, so when there is a pay-per-view event, I guess they will be. But on a consistent basis, I think it’s going to be difficult to service all of their fighters.”

When asked if PBC’s struggles were a result of not producing enough big fights over the last decade, Hearn said it comes down to overpaying fighters.

“No, it’s just that the sport became too expensive,” he explained. “Fighters are, on the whole, drastically overpaid. And I think overpaid sounds like a harsh word in boxing because it’s such a tough sport.

“But the reality is, the commercial value of a fighter is not being respected by us normally. We’re just competing against everyone, ‘How much does he want?’ and the reality is you do a pay-per-view, look at the viewership, or look at the ticket sales, and the numbers don’t make sense.”

Eddie Hearn Admits Being Part Of The Problem

Hearn was willing to call himself out. He was criticized in 2020 when former four-division world champion Mikey Garcia was guaranteed a $7 million purse to face Jessie Vargas, far above market value. Now he’s calling out fighters who are demanding money above their value.

“It’s like people like Teofimo Lopez — what an incredible fighter — want $10 million a fight. How? They don’t look at the numbers and go, ‘Oh, I understand.’ They go, ‘I don’t care what that says, that’s what I want.’

“I think we've got to focus more on just making great fights rather than trying to keep a fighter. Because what happens is a fighter becomes so expensive, they’ll take the right money for a shit fight. So you end up spending a load of money on a shit fight rather than maybe getting another fighter and actually making a great fight for the same amount of money.

Subriel Matias is high on Eddie Hearn's list of top fighters who aren't breaking the bank. Photo: Ryan Hafey, Premier Boxing Champions

“[I’ll] tell you a fighter I like at the moment, Subriel Matías, 140-pound IBF champion. He’ll fight anyone. And at the moment, he wants a lot of money, but it’s not enough money to watch that guy go in. He’s a beast, you know what I mean? And you pay up.

“Say you’re making a fight for [$2.5] million for Teofimo Lopez or $3 million for Teofimo Lopez against some guy you’ve never ever heard of. And you put that on TV or make Matias against another great fighter in a war. That’s what we've got to focus on more, not just pandering to fighters who have a deluded perception of their commercial value but overpaying fighters to be in wars. I think that’s what we need to do.”