Ricky Hatton accuses Eddie Hearn of deliberately giving his fighters maximum advantage; Browne rejects Joshua undercard

[Ruthless-RKO]

Hatton Promotions have turned down short notice proposals from Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn in respect of a twitter proposed bout on the undercard of Anthony Joshua‘s Cardiff bout on 28th October.

The proposed bout was heating up on twitter with the pair both very vocal on the platform and evidently with no love lost.

However in the end Ricky has confirmed that it simply was not possible.

“I got an offer from Eddie exactly 7 weeks out from the fight. I know why he does it. He protects his fighters and brings the money to the table late in the day to give his fighters maximum advantage. I don’t think any of Whyte’s opponents since Joshua have had a full camp. There is no one better in the business at the minute at working the angles with the fans, social media and getting the job done. But equally we are in a position where we must do what is best for our fighter and we have decided not to bow to the pressure”.

Lucas Browne and Hatton Promotions have had their well documented issues but there is no divide between Promoter and boxer on this occasion. Matt Clark- Lucas’ manager- confirmed “everyone at our end was perfectly aligned. I thought Eddie was light on the money to start with and he must have as well because to be fair he moved a bit but ultimately all of the team felt notice was too short. We like the fight, we think it makes a great fight, but it’s deserving of a fair platform and that is not what we have here”.

Browne lives in Western Australia, but would need to travel across Australia to Sydney for a fight camp. He would then of course have to travel to the UK with time to acclimatise before taking on the most important fight of his life.

In the end team Browne felt the timescales would have been near impossible and would have put Lucas at a significant disadvantage.

Ricky added “At the end of the day had Eddie blown our minds with the money, then you have to consider if it’s worth the gamble for Lucas to fight effectively without a camp. That was not the case by a long shot here”

Far from a game of brinkmanship no counter financial proposal was made by Hatton Promotions. “Ultimately, I’m a straight forward guy and once I had established the logistics it was clear to me the fight would not happen for the 28th and the money was not mind blowing. Eddie will tell you no doubt, I never made a counter offer”.

“Fans will be disappointed of course. What I would say is that if Eddie wants to give Lucas proper notice for the fight, we can look to make the numbers work, then 100 percent Lucas has the fight”

For now Hatton Promotions will continue with the others options that it was already looking at prior to the late Matchroom approach and hope to confirm fight details shortly.

[dirk2686]

There's a lot of fair comment there but Browne is in a quite unusual situation given where he is geographically.

[bripez]

Bit rich coming from Ricky - that is exactly what Frank did with him and he wasn't complaining then!

[Mark Lloyd]

I genuinely don't think this is a tactic but rather a symptom of incompetence on the part of Matchroom. Hatton is giving Hearn too much credit and many of his stable criticise Hearn for the lack of preparation they get themselves for a fight. He does indeed leave it late to announce opponents but this is also disruptive for his own fighters as well as the opponent as they are also in the dark. However it does provide a nice excuse for Browne who said before the whole Twitter shit that he would need 2-3 warm up fights before facing Whyte.

[billy nelson]

Any promoter would do the same in my eyes but if your fighter is in good condition seven weeks should be enough, saying that Lucas need to travel from oz that would be my main concern

[coneye]

Any promoter would do the same in my eyes but if your fighter is in good condition seven weeks should be enough, saying that Lucas need to travel from oz that would be my main concern

He would need to jump on the plane yesterday and do his training in Britain ,

[TheCobra]

Yeh can perfectly understand where Hatton/Browne are coming from. 7 weeks aint a lot, especially if he carries a bit of weight and takes a full camp to get his fitness right - too many cards by Hearn take until a few weeks before the date to get all the matches made. It's not good enough and it's something I've really noticed in the last 12 months - he thinks he can con the fans and for the most part he does.

[Tarkus]

Thats why you should be in the gym and ready to go. Thats called professionalism. 7 weeks are enough to prepare for the fight of this magnitude if you are in shape.

[Tomasino]

Thats why you should be in the gym and ready to go. Thats called professionalism. 7 weeks are enough to prepare for the fight of this magnitude if you are in shape.

This.

[ILikeBeer]

Ricky Hatton accuses Eddie Hearn of deliberately giving his fighters maximum advantage

That's a promoter's job.

[gilgamesh]

Bit rich coming from Ricky - that is exactly what Frank did with him and he wasn't complaining then!

Yeah. He faced opponents where he had every advantage all the way up until Tszyu for the most part.

[billy nelson]

Any promoter would do the same in my eyes but if your fighter is in good condition seven weeks should be enough, saying that Lucas need to travel from oz that would be my main concern

He would need to jump on the plane yesterday and do his training in Britain ,

David Brophy had 12 days a managed to win so why Lucas needs in your opinion 7 weeks before the fight I can't understand

[billy nelson]

Thats why you should be in the gym and ready to go. Thats called professionalism. 7 weeks are enough to prepare for the fight of this magnitude if you are in shape.

100% never a truer word written

[bripez]

Bit rich coming from Ricky - that is exactly what Frank did with him and he wasn't complaining then!

Yeah. He faced opponents where he had every advantage all the way up until Tszyu for the most part.

From day 1 he was a full time pro who knew his fight dates so could prepare.

He regularly had home advantage, not to mention seemingly always having Mickey Vann as the ref. who was very lenient when Ricky got cuts.

Also, the timing of the Tszyu fight was perfection.

[TheCobra]

Thats why you should be in the gym and ready to go. Thats called professionalism. 7 weeks are enough to prepare for the fight of this magnitude if you are in shape.

100% never a truer word written

Yeh I totally agree he should be in shape, all boxers should ideally, but by the sounds of it he's not, plus the logistical issues of where he is in Australia, I can understand why they didn't take it.

[TheGingerBomber]

Both sides of the argument are fair, Billy's boy Brophy proving what can be done if you're professional and take your chance, but not all fighters are the same. Ricky should return to Eddie and say "why not do the fight later on?" which is plausible given Hearn has said he thought about Whyte fighting in Monaco. I'd like that.

[TheGman]

Thats why you should be in the gym and ready to go. Thats called professionalism. 7 weeks are enough to prepare for the fight of this magnitude if you are in shape.

Exactly,if your professional you should fit all the time

[FastestHandsInThewest]

Excuses.

[wesshaw1985]

Any promoter would do the same in my eyes but if your fighter is in good condition seven weeks should be enough, saying that Lucas need to travel from oz that would be my main concern

He would need to jump on the plane yesterday and do his training in Britain ,

David Brophy had 12 days a managed to win so why Lucas needs in your opinion 7 weeks before the fight I can't understand

Brophy is 27 years old, Lucas Browne is 38.
In an ideal world all fighters would be ticking over 12 months of the year but at Lucas' age you just cant expect that to be the case...

[Lenny]

He would need to jump on the plane yesterday and do his training in Britain ,

David Brophy had 12 days a managed to win so why Lucas needs in your opinion 7 weeks before the fight I can't understand

Brophy is 27 years old, Lucas Browne is 38.
In an ideal world all fighters would be ticking over 12 months of the year but at Lucas' age you just cant expect that to be the case...

Nonsense, at 38 it's more important to keep yourself in consistently good shape

[dirk2686]

Yeh can perfectly understand where Hatton/Browne are coming from. 7 weeks aint a lot, especially if he carries a bit of weight and takes a full camp to get his fitness right - too many cards by Hearn take until a few weeks before the date to get all the matches made. It's not good enough and it's something I've really noticed in the last 12 months - he thinks he can con the fans and for the most part he does.

Loads of cards don't have all the matches made until close to the event. With over six weeks to go the card has five fights signed and sealed (main event plus the Yafai and Taylor world title fights and the Allen/Buglioni ones), so it's mostly ready.

Can we not level this 'con' at pretty much every promoter? How long did Yarde's opponent have to prepare for the fight this weekend?

[boxingknockout]

Yes, but what savvy promoter doesn't? It's not like Ricky didn't benefit similarly when Warren was guiding him.

[Noxy]

Thats why you should be in the gym and ready to go. Thats called professionalism. 7 weeks are enough to prepare for the fight of this magnitude if you are in shape.

This.

Yep, Steve Robinson

[crusader]

Is 7 weeks really that short?

[Noxy]

I don't think you can blame Hearn if he's looking after his fighters. He didn't get to where he is by not looking after them