Promoter Eddie Hearn was pleased with himself for riling up Artur Beterbiev during the final press conference for his fight tonight against Dmitry Bivol in Riyadh.
Hearn pushed Beterbiev’s buttons, calling him “arrogant” and bragging about how Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) would have beaten him during his undisputed heavyweight championship in Riyadh. Of course, this could backfire on Hearn.
By angering IBF, WBC and WBO champion Beterbiev, Hearn was motivated to knock Bivol down even more than he already had, which could result in a knockout tonight. Promoters usually do not go out of their way to harass Beterbiev because it is not a good thing to give even more reasons to destroy their fighters.
The beterbiev-Bivol fight is tonight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Their headliner begins at 6:00 pm ET on ESPN+.
“It’s my job, and if you look at the numbers, that clip did. Even Artur Beterbiev should die for me, “Thank you for that,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing newsDiscussing how the unified lightweight champion Artur Beterbiev rose during the final press conference, calling him “arrogant” and riding on how his fight, Dmitry Bivol will defeat him. “He’s not bothered because he doesn’t care about his profile.
The hard work of making Beterbiev angry shouldn’t have fallen on Hearn’s shoulders if Bivol had spoken, but it sounded like a broken record for weeks, hanging on deaf ears. Hearn should have given Bivol discussion points for his interviews and press conferences to get something fresh from him. It was completely useless for the promotion.
“You see what I did with Terence (Crawford) too. It’s the same kind of thing,” Hearn said. “These guys have a great personality, but it’s the promoter’s job to take that personality out of them and show that personality to the world, and Artur talked more yesterday in that press conference, probably in his last six fights combined, and it was fun, it was really fun.”
Hearn didn’t take much from Crawford promoting his fight against Israil Madrimov on August 3. Hearn did most of the marketing for that fight. To get more out of these fighters, Hearn needs to give them flashcards with different talking points to hit and then have some action.
They need to bring some drama to their interviews and press conferences. They are supposed to sell themselves, and they can’t do it without cue cards and acting skills. Even the great actor Marlon Brando He read the cue cards during his films rather than learning his lines.
“I think sometimes when I go back and forth with fighters, obviously you have different levels of fear. He’s definitely one up there… I’m not here to make friends,” Hearn said of Beterbiev.
