Britain's biggest fight promoter has launched an ambitious plan to bring elite boxing to his huge, multi-million dollar mansion — and Anthony Joshua wants to get involved
- Two of boxing's most powerful figures have announced a wild plan to bring the sport back in Britain.
- Eddie Hearn and Frank Smith, both of Matchroom Sport, will host four live events in consecutive Saturdays in the grounds of Matchroom HQ.
- Fights will take place outside, in the gardens of a 15-acre plot on which stands a heli-pad, an indoor swimming pool, and a mansion fit for a king.
- Boxing royalty Anthony Joshua, the unified heavyweight boxing world champion, wants to take part.
- "World championship boxing in my garden? Oh, go on then," Hearn said.
LONDON — Film footage cuts from one drone to another as they circle above Matchroom's head office in Essex, a grassy-county east of London.
The HQ is not your normal office block. It's a 15-acre mansion which Eddie Hearn, one of boxing's most powerful figures, grew up in with his dad, Barry, Matchroom's founder.
It boasts an indoor swimming pool, a heli-pad, and has cityscape views of London's financial district bursting through the horizon dozens of miles away.
"Sweet Caroline," the 1969 Neil Diamond classic now synonymous with boxing in Britain, has just finished playing.
A light display, pyrotechnics, and more elaborate fireworks accompany a big-name heavyweight who makes his entrance from the hills and toward a Sky Sports ring Hearn, 40, had built next to Matchroom HQ in his backyard.
It's almost time for the main event — let's get ready to rumble.
Nobody is smiling more than Hearn, who sits beneath the night sky at ringside, socially-distant from those around him.
Event staff and the fight's referee wear N95 masks to mitigate any threat from the novel coronavirus. Staff disinfect spit buckets after cleaning the canvas to a medical level.
Boxing is back.
A grand vision for the return of elite boxing
What you've just read is Hearn's vision to safely restart his sport behind-closed-doors in July, according to the Mail Online.
"World championship boxing in my garden? Oh, go on then," Hearn said.
It is as inventive as it is ambitious, and it typifies Hearn's charismatic and over-the-top style as he has frequently told Insider that he isn't just content to have taken control of boxing in Britain.
No. He's always had world boxing in his sights, and even that might not be enough as he seemingly becomes increasingly tempted to challenge the near monopoly the UFC enjoys in mixed martial arts.
Hearn's vision for boxing in the COVID-19 era is akin to one Dana White has, as the UFC president appears determined to follow his three, indoor Jacksonville events in May, with a mysterious "Fight Island" project he insists is real, and has a UFC hotel, gym, and a purpose-built Octagon which can apparently host events from June.
Both concepts are beyond the boundaries of what you and I consider normal, but, well … this is what wildly-effective promotional showmanship is all about. This is the fight game after all.
How the hell did boxing get here, in Matchroom Sports Garden?
The plan was likely devised at Matchroom HQ, otherwise known as Mascalls, which is a stately property 30 miles from the O2 Arena, where Matchroom's pay-per-view shows in London are often held.
There are many rooms all dedicated to Matchroom operations whether it's media-facing staff or operations. One of the key minds is Hearn's right-hand man Frank Smith, 27, who can be seen at events not in-front of the camera, but to the side, often working behind-the-scenes where he elevates the brand globally.
It is a far-cry from how Smith started, telling Insider in 2017 he began life at Matchroom as a 14-year-old errand-boy delivering pizza or bringing tea to poker players.
From there, he worked in various Matchroom sports properties like darts, snooker, and golf, before finally moving into the boxing department, where he handles multi-million dollar contracts for marquee clients like Anthony Joshua, Gennady Golovkin, and Devin Haney.
Smith, now the CEO of Matchroom Boxing, recently told us about the challenges his company was enduring.
Much of the world, England included, was in strict lockdown. Boxing, like the world's biggest sports leagues, had shut operations. The coronavirus pandemic had changed life for the foreseeable future.
Smith said he was finding it tough to motivate a team of 100 scattered through multiple territories as the business was reliant on live events, and live events were banned. Matchroom shows in Britain, Italy, and the US had all been postponed.
For Smith, the coronavirus was bigger than anything — boxing had to shut down. "So many people are suffering and are affected by it, so it's very hard … we're in a generation where we've never experienced anything like it," he told Insider.
In early April, Smith ruled-out working abroad in a country with a lower rate of the virus, because the situation had a habit of changing so rapidly that the "substantial" financial investment it would take, to stage an event in Saudi Arabia or Singapore, for example, would be far too risky when borders could close at a moment's notice.
"It's quite a risk to do anything in other markets," Smith said. "We do shows in nine territories and didn't look outside the territories we normally work in. Restrictions constantly change, it would be a big risk to set something up, only for it to change again with airports closing."
With international markets ruled out, Matchroom could only look within Britain, and so initially the team scoured studio options.
"We were looking at a few studios … no crowd, minimal staffing, minimal teams with the fighters," Smith told us. "But the decision was taken out of our hands when the government [banned] medical-supporting events."
Options were running out.
A possible new normal was dawning on the Matchroom team — they had become a live events business with no live events planned, or to plan.
Because of social-distancing rules, Smith conducted group Zoom calls every morning with his teams, with staff now working from their own homes. They caught up on admin, doing things that may have been missed, or left, and just tried to stay busy.
Every now and then Smith would return to Matchroom HQ to collect a file.
Between those trips, and maybe Hearn himself taking a call at Mascalls with the gardens in the background, an elaborate scheme was hatched.
The first rule of Fight Camp is … Tell everybody about Fight Camp
The second rule of Fight Camp is … No seriously, tell everybody about Fight Camp
That scheme was Fight Camp — four consecutive midsummer Saturday night events which will take place in the gardens of Matchroom HQ, without fans, and with reduced fight teams and event crew.
There can be no more than 90 people at each Saturday night event.
There'll be a studio center for Sky Sports which is Matchroom's broadcast partner in the UK, in addition to a media zone, changing room marquees, a weigh-in area — likely in the halls of the building — and an outdoor ring beneath a canopy to protect against Britain's notoriously fickle weather.
Matchroom plans to hire local hotels where athletes and trainers stay from each Tuesday, the start of fight week, through to Sunday, the morning after the Saturday fight.
Everyone involved in the events will be forced to quarantine for 24 hours after they've been tested on the Tuesday before the event, until they receive the results the next day. If they test positive for the coronavirus, they will leave the hotel and be isolated. Those who test negative continue on for Fight Camp.
Media activities will likely be done remotely, as the venue — with social-distancing measures — can only have 90 people on-site.
Matchroom is paying for $35,000 worth of COVID-19 tests for everybody involved in each of the fight weeks, for the camp's four week duration.
There is then a great financial outlay which come with rigging a mansion with fight and broadcast equipment in a way that dazzles on television. "It's a huge mission," Hearn told the Mail Online.
Robert Smith, the general secretary for the British Boxing Board of Control — which oversees the rules and regulations of the sport within the UK — said on a recent BBC 5 Live appearance that promoters who go behind-closed-doors will "take a big financial hit."
According to Boxing News, Smith said: "But they have contracts with TV companies and we want to get boxing back on TV."
Matchroom has held memorable events inside massive soccer stadiums in Britain, at the historic Madison Square Garden in New York City, and a purpose-built 15,000 capacity venue in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
Now, it's time for Matchroom Sports Garden to take center stage.
It's a a costly but potentially legacy-building series of Saturday fight nights over a four-week spell, which Hearn, Smith, and the wider Matchroom team hope recaptures the momentum it had earlier in the year, a time Hearn was telling Insider — not for the first time — that his business will be the world's No.1 fight firm.
"Financially this will be painful for us," Hearn told the Mail Online, adding to the BBC more recently that he is confident the backyard brawls this summer will "go down in history" as one of the great periods in British boxing.
"The most iconic venue in the world is Madison Square Garden, we will be the new garden. Of all the challenges I have had from Wembley Stadium to Saudi Arabia and Madison Square Garden, this is the biggest. That excites me," he said.
One of the greatest obstacles Matchroom has to overcome, is for gyms to reopen. This is so fighters with no other access to training can get fighting fit. Providing this ban is lifted, Hearn hopes to stage the events from mid-July
Prospective fights include:
- Natasha Jones vs. Terri Harper, super featherweight championship match
- Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano, lightweight championship match
- Cecilia Braekhus vs. Jessica McCaskill, welterweight championship match
- Dillian Whyte vs. Alexander Povetkin, heavyweight match
As there will be no fan-led atmosphere at any of these shows, Hearn hopes the raw sound of 10-ounce gloves smacking into a fighter's face will make for a compelling enough audio-visual experience at home.
"There's nothing like 90,000 [people] singing 'Sweet Caroline' but if you can create intensity through the sound of punches landed, the sound of fighters' heavy breathing, the sound of corner teams giving instructions and conversing with their fighters, this is what we need in the mix of the new TV show," Hearn told The Athletic.
"This isn't a game of soccer or tennis. This is brutal. If we can showcase that brutality in a more intense way, it's going to be quite compelling in the short-term."
He told the YouTube channel iFL TV that many of his athletes can compete on short notice. "90% of fighters are ready to go," he said. "They want to carry on their career."
Anthony Joshua wants to join Fight Camp
Joshua, heavyweight boxing's hottest property, has not fought since he reclaimed three major world heavyweight championship titles in Saudi Arabia last year, when he out-pointed Andy Ruiz Jr. with a disciplined performance in Saudi Arabia, six months after he was humiliatingly defeated by the same man in New York.
Joshua was due to defend his belts against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev on June 20 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, and while the coronavirus nixed that event, the date is being rearranged for when the COVID-19 situation becomes clearer.
ESPN reported earlier this month that Croatia presented a "very solid offer" to host the fight, but Joshua apparently wants to keep the bout in the UK, and even asked Hearn for an invitation to Fight Camp.
"I was talking AJ, AJ wants to fight here at Fight Camp," Hearn told iFL TV. "I don't think that's necessarily an option. But he wants to fight. This is what he does, I want to go back to the office, I want to go back to work. That's what I do.
"I'm sure fighters would prefer to fight in front of live crowds, of course you would. That's not going to be an option in the interim and may not even be an option until next year. So, be a pro, get prepared and get a fight in the bank. Get your money in the bank, progress your career, and let's go."
This echoes what Smith told Insider last month. The fighters, he said, are ready. "They're all keeping training, going out for their one run a day, working-out indoors, and staying very active.
"A lot of people knew the severity of the situation and are understanding of what's going on. They're all keeping ready, and that's the main thing."
Regardless of who fights and who doesn't, Matchroom appears set to follow in the UFC's footsteps and have a short-term residency of multiple nights in the same venue.
While the UFC did that in an empty 15,000 capacity VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Florida, the chosen venue, for Hearn, just happens to be the grounds of Matchroom HQ.
He told the Mail Online last week that he hopes it will be great for boxing, even if he knows it "won't be great for the grass."
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