In the aftermath of Matchroom’s card over the weekend, promoter Eddie Hearn spoke to reporters on what it’s like to build a fighter’s profile and why he thinks Terence Crawford vs David Avanesyan will do terrible PPV numbers despite rating Crawford as arguably the best fighter in the sport.
“I mean, it won’t do 10,000 buys,” Hearn said of Crawford vs Avanesyan. “10,000! If it’s $60 it won’t do 10,000 buys. So, like, if you’re getting paid that much to fight Avanesyan, you want 20 (million) to fight Spence, or you want 25, which is still too much money.
“I say it’s not the right commercial price, or right commercial value, but if it’s out there — it’s just madness. I just feel like you’re gonna be inactive, these guys are so inactive. Like Errol Spence now, when is he gonna fight? They’re talking March maybe, against Thurman or something like that.”
On if he thinks he could do a better job at promoting Crawford
“Not for that sort of money. But at the same time he’s an unbelievable fighter. But the way you promote a fighter is you build them. You have to get a hold of them early enough — Diego Pacheco is a good example. He turns pro at 17, start boxing him on these big shots, he looks good, he starts knocking people out. He’s from South Central L.A., then you fight him on a card all of then sudden and you hear a much bigger round of applause when he walks in.
“That happened about a year ago. And then every show, like tonight, you have people walk away like ‘you see that Diego Pacheco? He’s someone we can get behind.’ He’s 21. When he’s 23 he’s gonna be headlining in LA and he’ll be selling out the old Stub Hub there. And that’s how you build a fighter.
“Terence Crawford is now like 34. Brilliant fighter, maybe pound-for-pound #1. But I feel they should’ve built him more — it’s difficult because you want to just fill arenas with him in Nebraska but you can’t generate the gate you need in Nebraska. But for me, visually, when you turn on the TV and you see a guy who’s selling 10,000+, that’s when you’re building a star. Same as with Deontay Wilder in Alabama when they went there and done that.
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