‘This will be absolute war’
Promoter Eddie Hearn says Katie Taylor is facing into the most pivotal week of her already iconic career...
THE 3 Arena had long fallen silent, the incredible noise of an emotional and historic night almost a distant memory, when Eddie Hearn and a devastated Katie Taylor were leaving the venue back in May. They were sharing a lift together, promoter and fighter who had been on a remarkable journey for six and half years and brought women’s boxing into the mainstream. This was a new experience for both, trying to make sense of a defeat.
‘I got the lift down with Katie,’ Hearn remembers. ‘And I just told her that I knew she was hurting, and I mentioned the rematch clause. And all she said was ‘I will win the rematch.’ That’s all she said. From that time until now, I don’t think she has had one day or night when she hasn’t been thinking about the rematch and winning his rematch. She will put every ounce of her soul into this fight.’
We caught Hearn in the back of a taxi on the way to the airport earlier this week. It is the middle of a hectic period for the smooth-talking Matchroom promoter. There isn’t a weekend off between now and Christmas. Last night, he was in Los Angeles. Next week, it is Dublin for Taylor’s rematch with Chantelle Cameron. Then Belfast, San Francisco, Arizonia and finally Saudi Arabia for Anthony Joshua’s comeback bout.
‘It used to be that this time of the year was slow and quiet in professional boxing, but not anymore. It is all go, constantly,’ the verbose promoter says. And while there is plenty of globetrotting over the coming weeks, the sense is that what might happen next Saturday night hasn’t been far from his mind.
In Dublin a few weeks ago to launch the card, Hearn even suggested that the career of Taylor, one of his prized assets, was on the line in this bout. Another defeat for the fighter, who turned 37 during the summer, and the questions about retirement would grow ever louder.
The retirement question was broached when the world lightweight champion did a Zoom call with journalists last week and Taylor made her feelings clear on being asked it by sighing and bristling slightly. While she knows that she cannot go on forever, the talented Bray native will feel that she has earned the right to go out on her own terms, as Hearn points out.
‘She doesn’t like to be told what to do and that has always been part of her DNA, that is what made her what she is. She doesn’t want to hear no, can’t, won’t. She is amazing in that respect. I think she will feel that it is almost disrespectful to talk about her retirement, that she will decide when she is going to retire. And that time is not now.
That is Katie’s mentality.’
Hearn also promotes Cameron, so it was relatively easy for him to iron out any creases and smooth the sticking points around the rematch. There was a little disgruntlement in the champion’s camp, given that her win first time out should have allowed her a hometown defence. However, when it was pointed out that much more money could be made back in Dublin, those concerns eased.
‘We represent both fighters, but we have a long-standing relationship with Katie,’ said Hearn. ‘Sometimes, in these type of fights when you look after both boxers, it can be difficult because someone might think you are favouring the other. But they are two tremendous fighters.
‘And contractually, we got to make the decision of where the fight would take place. The most amount of money would be taken in Dublin and once Cameron realised that, she was happy to come back here. She would have preferred to fight in the UK. In the first fight, she was the champion but she was treated as the challenger. Understandable really, because commercially, she was the B side. It was Katie’s homecoming, but now she has beaten Katie, she will get the respect as a champion.’
As Hearn suggests, from the moment that her opponent’s hand was raised back in May, Taylor has been focused on the rematch. However, as a promoter who has to look after the best interests of one of his star clients, one wonders if he had any apprehension about Taylor once again challenging a bigger and younger opponent?
‘With Katie, once she gets something in her head, I feel like you can’t talk her out of it, anyway. And I feel like at this stage of her career, I don’t know what the solution is in terms of who to fight? She just wants the biggest challenges out there and I think losing was such a setback and given she is such a stubborn competitor, that the natural thing for anyone like that is to run it back. So, she says: “I believe I can win the fight, I believe I wasn’t good enough the first time. I believe I can be better, I know that I can beat her.”
‘Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. We have seen it when it has worked and have seen when it hasn’t. But nothing could have been said, there is nobody on this planet who could have talked Katie Taylor out of taking this immediate rematch, no one. And to be honest, I think it is the right decision because what else are you in the game for?’ Hearn says.
Since the defeat in May, which was arguably more comprehensive than it looked on the three scorecards, theories have abounded as to why Taylor didn’t quite seem herself in the 3 Arena. Everything from the length of the ringwalk to the emotion of coming home to a troublesome calf injury have been offered up as reasons for the belowpar performance.
On the same Zoom call last week, Taylor implied that she knows herself what went wrong on the night but typically, refused to reveal the reason. Hearn, with his usual salesman’s patter, suggests that perhaps we shouldn’t look for reasons as to why Taylor didn’t perform and simply applaud
Once Katie gets something in her head, I feel you can’t talk her out of it
Cameron for her polished performance.
‘It was always going to be a challenge for Katie. She was fighting a younger, fresher, bigger opponent. The homecoming was such an emotional draining experience, all week there were commercial aspects to it and there had been so much media, so many people wanted a piece of
Katie. She had never been around so much of that before. The ring-walk comes, she is on the stage for five minutes before she even walks to the ring. All of that did take a toll.
‘But at the same time, I don’t like it when we don’t give Chantelle Cameron credit. We are trying to find excuses as to why Katie lost, but we can just say that she was beaten by the better fighter on the night,’ Hearn says.
He does expect that Dublin will get to see a much better version of Taylor next weekend but as he also points out, the super-lightweight champion might also improve.
‘This time, Katie has got to be better, but it is very likely that Chantelle Cameron will be better as well. She has been through the whole experience before, has been to Dublin, she has boxed there and she believes now more than ever before, because she has already beaten Katie.
‘So, it is very difficult to expect anything other than an improved Chantelle Cameron on the night. Katie will improve too, Katie will be better than last time. No question. No doubt, but so too will Chantelle and that will make it a great fight.’
Hearn didn’t want to project too far in the future, perhaps waiting until Taylor set the record straight against Cameron. There is still the prospect of a rematch with Amanda Serrano, even if the Puerto Rican appears to have gone in a different direction since the Madison Square Garden classic.
‘At the end of the day, Katie Taylor wants to be on the biggest stages and fighting the biggest fights possible. But back-to-back defeats are very difficult to come back from. If she loses this fight, she will still be the undisputed lightweight champion and she can still fight Serrano again in a mega-fight. The demand for that will still be there, even if she was coming off back-to-back defeats. But I think Katie has reached a very important moment in her career here.’
And that’s the thing. It feels like a moment of truth for Taylor. She insists that she will be much better prepared this time around, and it’s unlikely that the ring-walk will take six minutes. But as Hearn is keen to emphasise, there’s every chance that Cameron will be better, too.
Still, with the flourish of the salesman that he is, Hearn wanted to stress that Dublin might witness one of the most thrilling fights of the year next Saturday night.
‘The last fight was very good, but I promise you that this fight will be on another level. I think this fight will be better and more thrilling than Taylor-Serrano. There is too much on the line for this not to be electric.
‘Taylor-Serrano I was an amazing fight but honestly, I think this will be better. This will be an absolute war.’