‘DAZN was spending huge money on Canelo that’s now floating’: Hearn talks bright side of Canelo’s PBC move
Eddie Hearn says Canelo made the best move for his career at this stage, but he hopes to circle back to him later.
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn talks about the recent news of Canelo Alvarez aligning with PBC instead of re-upping with DAZN, and why he’s a little bit excited to have DAZN’s budget opened up now so he can try to bring some other big fights to the platform. Hearn readily admits he didn’t have a compelling offer for Canelo at this moment, but will look to circle back with him once he’s freed up again. Here’s some of what he had to say on the topic.
Hearn on Canelo signing with PBC
“Not every Canelo fight works financially for DAZN, but it works for us. So we would love to continue promoting him but I think it’s the best move for his career.”
On what three fights he thinks Canelo will have under PBC
“As I understand it, not set, it could be anyone. But I guess obviously Charlo is a frontrunner, maybe a Benavidez fight in the future. I don’t know, Morrell, Errol Spence...One of our biggest strengths previously was we had Callum Smith, we had Billy Joe Saunders, we could make Golovkin fight, we had Dmitry Bivol.
“This time around, like I said, we couldn’t actually make an offer but really we had Bivol, which we couldn’t deliver, and Berlanga who probably isn’t gonna be ready for two or three fights. So I think they’ve got two, three, four fights for him there that obviously make sense. And I think at this stage in his career that closing run could be perfect for him.”
On if he wants to wait Canelo’s PBC deal out and then try to stage a fight against Berlanga
“The plan is (for Berlanga) to keep making statements and keep making sure you make that fight as big as possible, because when that deal’s done, whether it’s done next summer or next winter, we want to then go back to Canelo and say ‘right now we have Edgar Berlanga, Dmitry Bivol is undisputed at 175, etc.’
“So for Edgar I think it focuses the mind that that fight is not available right now and you need to go through the levels as people keep telling us on social media...DAZN was spending a huge amount of money on Canelo Alvarez that now sits floating, gives us the potential to go and make some megafights back end of the year. And that’s really the job we’re gonna be tasked with now.
“We’re not gonna be replacing one night, we’re gonna be replacing multiple nights and bringing those big names to the platform with the money they would’ve previously spent on one night with Canelo Alvarez. So in that respect I’m excited...”