Boxing Promoter Eddie Hearn Breaks Down Greatest Fights He's Ever Promoted

Hey guys, I'm Eddie Herm from Matchroom.

Again today, we're gonna look at some of the greatest fights

I've ever promoted.

[upbeat music]

So when I make a fight, the first thing

that I have to overcome is ego.

Ego of the fighters, ego of the managers, ego of the lawyers

everybody that don't like each other.

You gotta negotiate the purse,

the first and most important thing.

Flights, hotels, drug testing, sanction fees, belts

ring size, glove size, the weight, is there a catch weight,

is their championship weight?

So many things to to negotiate that all roll on

up until fight night.

The most important thing is to be fair.

I mean, we have to act with integrity.

We've got a good reputation for that

but you also wanna fight for your client.

You wanna make sure that if there's an edge for him

in any way, you get it, generally common sense prevails.

The problem is, not a lot of common sense in boxing.

[bell rings]

Joshua Klitschko, 29th of April, 2017.

One of the greatest fights in the history

of heavyweight boxing.

90,000 people at the national stadium in Wembley

for the unified heavyweight world championship.

This fight was a massive gamble for Anthony Joshua.

He'd just won the World Heavyweight title,

against Charles Martin, defended it against Dominic Brazil

and then Eric Molina.

But Vladimir Klitschko, one of the great heavyweights

of our generation reigned in the division

for years and years.

Lost a Tyson Fury on points, wanting to come back

and cause a statement in the division,

regain his heavyweight championship.

And Joshua still a baby, no right to be in there

with someone as good or as experienced as Vladimir Klitschko

and it was a case of is Anthony Joshua ready

for Vladimir Klitschko?

Would Klitschko take on such a young

fierce lion in Anthony Joshua?

Luckily the answer was yes, and we got one off

one of the greatest fights of all time.

I mean, in a fight like that, the structure

of the deal is quite simple.

All the money in the pot, 50-50 down the middle,

costs are agreed, revenue brought into the show.

The profit of the show is split between the fighters.

Both guys happily signed up to full WADA testing

for that fight, something that's sometime is hard to do

with certain opponents.

Every press conference, every media day

had a huge global reach in terms of news outlets.

It was news everywhere in every country.

I'd like to say it was difficult to fill Wembley stadium.

We could have filled Wembley stadium about three times over.

We sold out that fight in the first day.

Sadick Kalm came on and helped us actually

with transport to increase the attendance.

Honestly could have sold 200,000 tickets

for that show was incredible.

I mean, I think going into the fight

no one was really sure how good is Anthony Joshua?

How much does Vladimir Klitschko left?

You could hardly split him in terms

of the betting, it was Joshua, the slight favorite going in

but no one was sure how this one would go.

[crowd cheering]

This fight was just one of the most epic, emotional

roller coasts you could ever watch in a fight.

Both guys came out a little bit tentative early on.

And Anthony Joshua dropped Vladimir Klitschko

in the fifth round.

It was incredible, I thought the fight was over.

And so did Anthony Joshua.

He let the kitchen sink go at him in that fifth round

and completely gassed out.

He emptied his tank and at the end of the round,

Vladimir Klitschko came back

and nearly stopped Anthony Joshua.

The sixth round he came out, he got hit

by one of the biggest right hands I've ever seen.

And Joshua went down, got up, found his feet

found a way somehow to refill his tank

and get back into the fire,

and take it to him in the later rounds.

Of course dropping him [bell rings]

twice and stopping him in the 11th round.

We don't choose the referee but both camps in that instance

wanted to make sure they had the right referee in place.

In that instance, Vladimir Klitschko insisted

on a non British referee that night.

And after that fight, firstly, two guys will be remembered

for giving us one of the greatest fights of all time.

But for AJ who was already a star going

into that fight, just catapulted himself, really to hero

size in the UK, and also globally as well.

For Vladimir Klitschko, I think he left the sport

humbled and actually satisfied

that he'd given everybody everything he had.

He gave everybody a war that night at Wembley,

and sometimes that's a good way to bow out.

But everyone gave him so much respect

because he kept getting off the floor to try

and win the fight against Anthony Joshua.

And at the end, the two embraced.

And to be honest, they were both heroes. [bell rings]

April 30th, 2022 Madison Square Garden,

Katie Taylor against Amanda Serrano,

for the undisputed lightweight world championship.

Katie Taylor of course achieved so much as an amateur.

Five time world amateur champion, Olympic gold medalist,

and already undisputed lightweight world champion.

Amanda Serrano seven division world champion.

Really we've seen tremendous growth

in women's boxing led by Katie Taylor.

We reached the pinnacle on April the 30th

at the MECCA of Boxing Madison Square Garden

with the biggest female fight of all time.

Well, the good and bad news about making this fight

was Jake Paul, can you believe

was Amanda Serrano's promoter.

It was a little bit difficult, but really great to work with

because he pushed this fight so hard with us.

I bet Amanda wins for a million dollars.

Okay.

Let's shake up on it, let's go.

Jake Paul wanted his client to get

a million dollars for this fight.

And obviously we needed to make sure we gave Katie Taylor,

the same or more.

Both females made over seven figures that night

at Madison Square Garden.

Luckily we filled the place up and they deserved it.

Every belt in boxing was on the line that night.

You gotta put them all on the line.

And Amanda Serrano had the chance to win them

all in one fight.

So we decided to go to Madison Square Garden,

the Mecca of boxing.

And I felt like a fight at this magnitude had to have

an iconic venue like that, and we sold a lot.

The promotion for this fight was great.

I mean, we had ourselves, Matt and me, Katie Taylor,

a legend to the sport, we had Amanda Serrano

and we had Jake Paul using his platforms, using his channel

using his content to push this fight as hard as possible.

It's difficult sometimes with a character

as big as Jake Paul, you don't want him to oversize

the fighters but you gotta use him in the right way.

And he helped us sell this show to the full.

[bell rings] This fight was backwards,

forwards, it was up, it was down.

Katie Taylor dominated the early part of the fight.

Then all of a sudden, decided to go to a war

with Amanda Serrano.

She got hurt badly, I think it was the fourth

or fifth round.

Looked like she was gonna get stopped in the fight.

Somehow came back into the fight to win

the closing rounds as well.

It was a split decision, two one in terms

of the judge's scorecards for this fight

and the right person won, and we embraced,

we celebrated when we heard, And still, the undisputed

champion of the world.

Well, this fight was massive for female boxing

and of course men's boxing as well.

You only have to look at the increased numbers

of girls and females attending grassroots boxing now.

And that's what you need, you need an ambassador,

you need a role model to drive young people into the sport.

And there's no better role model than Katie Taylor.

[upbeat music]

November 9th, 2019 Staple Center, Los Angeles.

KSI against Logan Paul 2.

Can't believe I did it, but what an experience.

The history of this one, I watched the first one,

they told me they'd booked out Manchester arena.

It was gonna go on pay-per-view around the world.

I thought they must be mad.

Who's gonna watch that?

The answer was everybody.

I thought I better do the rematch.

Dealing with these two was very, very difficult,

dealing with their representation,

dealing with their lawyers, dealing with their egos,

but two very, very clever guys.

Two guys who knew how to create content.

Two guys who knew how to engage the audience.

And somehow we managed to put 'em in a ring

in front of about 13,000 people in Los Angeles.

So they asked me to get involved in this fire.

I said, if we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it properly.

Proper training camps, no head guards, no big gloves.

If you wanna fight, we'd have a real fight.

These guys went through a rigorous training camp

in a proper ring, properly licensed.

They made their professional debut that night

in Los Angeles.

In one corner, Logan Paul, absolutely useless,

in another corner KSI, absolutely useless.

But the good news was, it was a 50-50 fight

which always means entertainment.

And fair play to 'em, they put on a good fight that night.

The challenges was from in this instance,

it was like, who's bigger.

You know, this guy, I've got more YouTube subscribers.

I've got this, I did more hits on that.

I don't care, guys, there's a lot of money

on the table here, stop being idiots.

Let's sit down and figure out a deal.

So we did that, and to be fair to them,

once we started, it was actually plain sailing.

Apart from the press conferences, which were probably

the most cringed thing I've ever been involved with

in my career.

I'd stand up there I'd say, What's your comment

on this fight?

Next thing he's saying about his mum,

and his mum's this and his mum's that.

And I'm watching there watching my credibility drain away,

but it was a massive learning experience for me.

The live press conference had about six

or 7 million people watching a press conference.

The pay-per-view buyers around the world were huge

and it was a different kind of audience

that started to engage with us.

And even now to this day, if I go and pick

the kids up from the school, they know me

from the KSI, Logan Paul fight.

I think it did about 2 million pay-per-view buyers

for this show, incredible.

pay-per-view in the UK, pay-per-view in America,

pay-per-view view all around the world, huge numbers.

And as I said these two fantastic

at engaging their audience.

So when we talk about pay pay-per-view and streaming

obviously designer our partner, we see that as the future.

I think ultimately pay pay-per-view,

particularly at the price point in the UK,

and the Us will end up dying out away from the mega fights

and the mega names as well.

The subscription model, via our streaming partner,

I think is the future of the sport.

There is the big debate around this fight.

Is this good or bad for the sport of boxing?

The thing is, it brought a whole new audience

to the sport of boxing.

I think ultimately, good for the sport.

Doesn't mean I'll do it again.

Yeah KSI the underdog in that fight,

I'm not sure what to think about that.

I'm not sure what to think about anything about this fight.

I mean, Logan Paul looked apart,

he was much bigger than KSI,

but KSI probably had more boxing experience.

But it was a complete coin flip that night.

Fight night, the time these two got in the ring

I just didn't know what was gonna happen.

Everything was just absolutely crazy.

The fight itself, KSI went down, he nearly got stopped.

He controlled most of the fight, the bell went.

I dunno what was gonna happen.

I can't remember the exact scorecards

but it was very, very close.

KSI got the nod. [bell rings]

The YouTube world went mad, bragging rights forever.

Both guys embraced, and we went home thinking,

What have we just witnessed?

But it was a lot of fun.

Aftermath, someone just asked me the legacy of this fight.

Please don't talk to me about legacy of this fight.

Great fun, great memories, great experience.

I was sitting next to Justin Bieber, watching that fight.

I have got one funny story.

If you just allow me to tell this story.

That night I'm sitting there,

there's celebrities everywhere.

Justin Bieber was sitting to my left, watching the fight,

all of a sudden I've seen Ed Sheeran walk into the arena.

He's getting mobbed, he's gone to the back of the floor.

He's sitting 30 rows behind me.

I said to my security, go and get Ed Sheeran,

get him up here.

So goes to get Ed Sheeran walks him up,

sits him five seats away from me.

I said, Ed, how you doing mate?

He said, Thanks mate, thanks mate.

I thought to myself, I don't think that's Ed Sheeran.

That is Ed Sheeran, and everyone said,

that's 100% Ed Sheeran.

And we realized it was an Ed Sheeran lookalike.

We went on Ed Sheeran's Instagram and he was in Japan

at the time, and I had to sling this geezer

out of the Staple Center for pretending

to impersonate Ed Sheeran.

[upbeat music] May the 8th, 2021,

Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

over 75,000 people to see, the pound for pound number one,

Canelo Alvarez defend his unified world titles

against the Brit and reigning world champion,

Billy Joe Saunders.

The process behind this fight, Canelo Alvarez

wanted to be the undisputed super

middle weight world champion.

He'd just beat Callum Smith before that fight to win the WBA

and the Ring Magazine Championship and the WBC title.

Now he wanted Billy Joe Saunder's WBO, championship belt.

So it was champion against champion

for the unified super middleweight world championship.

But for this obviously Canelo Alvarez

the biggest star in the sport, huge subscription numbers,

75,000 people there, international TV revenue everywhere.

But Billy Joe Saunders had to get the purse that he wanted.

Also, we were just coming out of COVID.

Wasn't sure how the gate was gonna go, didn't even know

whether we'd be able to get 75,000 people in there.

Billy Joe Saunders probably a six time maximum purse

for him, we all know the pull power

and the money making machine of Canelo Alvarez.

Both guys huge pay days on that night.

I chose Texas because I wanted to make history.

I wanted to create the biggest attendance in US

boxing history.

Jerry Jones, a great man, great businessman,

Dallas Cowboys stadium AT&T, it had it all.

A lot of Hispanic fight fans and the community in Texas

as well, and we filled the whole thing up.

The atmosphere was one of the best atmospheres

I've ever seen.

And Billy Joe Saunders came into the ring,

fearless getting booed by 75,000 people.

Tyson fury was there, his family were there.

His friends were there, other boxers as well

and came in and boxed really, really well in the fight.

All of a sudden got hit by a shot by Canelo Alvarez,

busted his orbital bone, probably one of the worst injuries

you could get in boxing.

And on the stool, his corner had to pull him out,

the fight was over.

Aftermath of the fight, incredible scenes in Texas.

Unfortunately for Billy Joe Saunders

had to go to the hospital to get his orbital bone

taken care of and have surgery on that.

For Canelo Alvarez it was about adding one more belt

on the road to undisputed.

[upbeat music] Anthony Joshua

defending his world heavyweight championship

against Andy Ruiz at Madison Square Garden.

The history of this fight was an absolute nightmare.

We had planned Anthony Joshua's first fight in America,

the big American debut.

Who better than Jarrell Big Baby Miller.

Big mouth, big heavyweight, all of a sudden

the fight was made, tickets were sold out,

and I was at home one night and I got the horrible

phone call from the drug testing company

to say Jarrell Miller had tested positive.

And I got another phone call about two days later

to say he tested positive again.

He was on the juice for this fight.

I couldn't believe it, the fight was off.

We only had a couple of weeks to go to

secure an opponent.

Who slides into my DMS?

Andy Ruiz.

Now he's a little bit chubby,

but I know he is very, very good.

I thought great fight for Anthony Joshua,

incredible heavyweight, fought for the

world heavyweight championship before, fantastic.

The promotion for this fight was quite interesting.

You had the global star Anthony Joshua,

but you had Andy Ruiz who looked terrible

in a pair of shorts.

I mean, I'm talking terrible.

I mean, I don't look great in a pair of shorts,

but I look a million dollars compared

to Andy Ruiz in fight shows.

But the guy can really fight.

Anthony Joshua, a huge favorite.

A lot of it was down to the way that Andy Ruiz looked.

People in boxing knew that Andy Ruiz was a great fighter.

Some gave him a chance, but Josh, an overwhelming favorite

for that matchup.

We go out there that night, the world is watching,

Madison Square Garden full up,

the entire global media outlets brimming everywhere

in the place.

Anthony Joshua drops Andy Ruiz in the third round,

we think lovely, we're gonna go for a few beers now,

what a successful evening?

And all of a sudden, a huge hook to the top of the head.

The fight changes in one of the most epic rounds.

Round three of that fight, in history

of Madison Square Garden

Anthony Joshua goes down, four or five times in the fight.

[bell rings] The fight is over.

The aftermath was horrendous at Madison Square Garden.

Back in the changing room, the doctor said that Joshua

had concussion, he didn't want him to go

to the press conference.

Joshua wanted to go to the press conference.

He eventually went to the press conference.

I had to go up beforehand and run the press conference

with Andy Ruiz celebrating the victory

with the belts everywhere.

I felt sick in my stomach, as I was talking

about the result of this fight.

Next day going to AJ in apartment in New York

just devastated, trying to put on a brave face

but then it's all about the road back.

It's about the comeback, it's about the get back.

We knew we had a rematch clause.

It was up to AJ whether he wanted to activate it.

The answer was absolutely yes.

The rematch was made and the rest is history.

He won 'em all back.

Well guys, that was it.

Great memories, great fights.

Plenty more to come, thanks for watching.