Hearn insists rematch just won’t happen
RICKY BURNS may be one of the bravest guys on the planet. Eddie Hearn is an honest man. And so, after seeing his f i ghter refuse to back down even when suffering the most unimaginable pain, t he promoter i s blunt about the prospect of a rematch with Ray Beltran.
It would be morally right, he concedes, to put the battered champion and hardhitting challenger back in the same ring again at the earliest opportunity. But it is not going to happen. Not after what happened at Glasgow’s SECC on Saturday night.
Doctors admitted yesterday that they had been astounded by Burns’ ability to fight on after having his jaw broken in the second round of the WBO lightweight title fight.
It was one hell of a performance from a guy who knew that he had been beaten, t hought about stopping several t i mes — but refused to quit.
‘I spoke to Ricky and he said there were four or five occasions when he was leaning against the ropes and it was 5050 whether he was going to say he can’t go on — but obviously he didn’t,’ said Hearn.
‘Ricky couldn’t even talk at the end of the fight. The doctor came in and said he had dislocated his jaw. He is a tough son of a bitch.
‘I have no idea how long Ricky will be out for, as I don’t know how long it takes to heal. It is a bad injury and I can’t see him fighting again this year.’
Asked about the potential of a return bout between this pair, Hearn did nothing to disguise the harsh realities of a sport run on the basis of boxoffice revenue, saying: ‘Morally, I think a rematch would be the right thing.
‘Politically, financially, will it? Top Rank will push for Ricky to fight Terence Crawford as a mandatory challenger and Top Rank also represent Raymundo Beltran. So my gut feeling is ‘‘No’’.
‘We wouldn’t go to America for a fight against Beltran because he hasn’t got the pull, nor the TV. Where would the money come from? That’s the politics of boxing — you can’t make fights in territories that have no demand.
‘Scoringwise, if I’m being honest, I gave it to Beltran — but I had it very close.
‘At the end of the day, all the officials were appointed by the WBO, the American judge gave it to Ricky, the Belgian judge gave it to Beltran. If you had given it one round either way, I wouldn’t have screamed a fuss.
‘One thing I will say is that you have to take the belt off the champion. If you score it one round either way, you have to give it to the champion.
‘I feel Ricky may have lost the fight by two rounds tops — but you could have found an argument for a draw or an argument for one round for Burns.
‘If people think he lost the fight, they have to report on that, but I would like them to say: “Fair play to him, he is a brave son of a b****”. We know that but we want to see him box better as well.’ The damage done to Burns goes beyond the physical, with the nature of Saturday’s result — and highlydubious draw — doing little to endear him to punters or pundits on either side of the Atlantic.
Asked what American viewers tuning in to live coverage might make of his man now, Hearn admitted: ‘My aim for Ricky is to set him up financially for life. I don’t care what people in America think.’
The problem is that Burns might have to go Stateside eventually, if he is to make a mandatory defence of his WBO title against Crawford. And if he can keep making the weight.
Hearn added: ‘ We will negotiate with Top Rank. HBO would love that fight in America, Top Rank would love it at Madison Square Garden.
‘But I don’t know how much longer Ricky will continue to make the weight at 135 pounds. I don’t know if we take him up to light welterweight because that is an opportunity to become a three-weight world champion.’
“I felt Ricky may have lost by two rounds tops, but he was so brave”