Hearn: Fighters bring the noise!
EDDIE HEARN reckons his back garden boxing shows will cope without spectators much better than football has done.
The intensity of the Premier League has diminished since the restart, with no supporters in stadiums.
And there are fears that boxing matches will fall a bit flat as well.
But Hearn is convinced his fighters will have no choice but to be 100 per cent switched on.
Hearn, who will host four shows in August as part of Fight Camp, culminating with Dillian Whyte against Alexander Povetkin, said: “There is always a danger that, not necessarily the quality of the fight itself, but the buzz for a fighter and the intensity going into the ring can be dampened.
“It’s very difficult for someone who isn’t a fighter to answer, because if you haven’t been in the ring then you don’t know what it’s like.
“Every fighter says the same thing, ‘A ring is a ring, it doesn’t matter where it is’. I don’t buy that, by the way, but what I do believe, as Tony Bellew said on Friday, is that once you get hit you switch on very quickly.
“In football, you might not really be ‘up for it’, you can get away with having an average game and people might not say anything. You can’t get away with a below-par performance in boxing. You will get beaten.
“So it’s a case of being a professional and realising the sport you are in is extremely dangerous.
“If you are not ‘on it’ you’re in danger, not just of losing a fight but getting hurt, and that fear factor for any fighter is enough to make sure you’re switched on.”
Meanwhile, Hearn will now negotiate Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight showdown against Tyson Fury next year with promoter Bob Arum, after Fury distanced himself from controversial Irishman Daniel Kinahan.
Hearn said: “They have made it very clear Bob is the man in charge of Tyson. We negotiate exclusively with Bob now – we just have to make the fight.”