Eddie Hearn says Campbell Hatton “It’s not really moving forward” after losing to James Flint in their light welterweight rematch last night at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England.
Campbell lost a 10-round unanimous decision to Flint in the co-feature with scores of 97-94, 96-95, and 96-94. The level that both fighters showed was not worthy of being the main support fight on the Jack Catterall vs. Regis Prograis card, given the amount of interest that the fight generated outside of the United Kingdom.
Indeed, the Campbell vs. Flint rematch looked like it belonged on the preliminary card, not the main event. It was too low level, and stuck the card. Hearn is obviously trying to please his British fans by loading his events with the British that they are NOT on a global level and never will be.
However, he needs to focus on world class fighters because Americans see many of the fighters he puts on his card as not worthy of being shown on DAZN and should not be on the main card or even the preliminary parts.
Hearn needs it trim some fat his stable Matchroom by trimming fighters who lack the talent to fight at world level, which means guys like Campbell Hatton and Pat McCormack.
Hearn notes that the 23-year-old Hatton (14-2, 5 KOs) has now lost back-to-back fights against Flint (15-2-2, 3 KOs). Matchroom promoter Hearn says they “don’t work with fighters” who suffer back-to-back defeats at the area or English level. However, Hearn says Campbell is “a little different” because he feels he’s a “good kid.”
Obviously, Campbell is the son of the famous British fighter Ricky Hatton does not hurt either because he received the same attention as the other children of famous Englishmen, such as Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. None of those guys are really world class, though. he gets a lot of attention for his struggles in the UK, but not so much in the US
If Hearn wants to put fighters like Campbell, Eubank Jr., and Benn misfit cards to celebrity fighters, okay. But it does not belong to the DAZN cards for serious boxing against the fighters of the world. They belong at the celebrity level for cheap, mindless entertainment, but not on the main cards.
It’s good to have Campbell on circus cards to watch if you have nothing else to do, but it’s nothing but cheap filler for a quality event. Hearn needs to get away from using all the untalented fighters he has added to his cards as filler and just focus on quality from now on.
If I were one of the top brass at DAZN, I’d tell Hearn to leave the sons of famous fighters out of his events unless they prove they can beat the fighters of the world. Unfortunately, Campbell, Eubank Jr., and Conor Benn never did that. The fighters they fight are always low level.
“It’s difficult because he’s very young. If a man was 29 or 30 years old, you’d say: “Maybe it’s your lot”, but now, I think Campbell’s level is area and English title. It’s not a disgrace. A lot of fighters never reach that level,” said Eddie Hearn during Saturday night press conference after the fight in Manchester, discussing light welterweight champion Campbell Hatton for the loss of James Flint in his rematch.
“Obviously, with our stable and where we are trying to take the fighters, we have not really worked and they continuously come back after consecutive defeats of the titles of the area and the fighters at the English level. Campbell is a little different because, for one, he’s a really good kid. Two, because he works his nuts off, and two because he’s given up two brilliant fights back-to-back, and he’s still young.
“So Campbell has to look at himself and say, ‘If this is my level, am I happy to continue?’ If he’s happy to continue, then he should absolutely continue, whether it’s to go get a couple of fights on smaller shows without pressure,” Hearn said.
Campbell Hatton should not be on the main Matchroom side of his cards in the future if he is unable to fight and beat world class opposition. It’s not just UK fans watching Matchroom events on DAZN. The Americans are watching, and they don’t like to pay to see mediocre fighters in undercards, especially not in the main support as what was the case last night in the Catterall-Prograis event. In truth, even that fight wasn’t a great one. Catterall has shown that he is a copy of Shakur Stevenson with his running.
Catterall would have lost if he fought someone good last night, like William Zepeda. Zepeda would have hunted Catterall down like a hunter, bagged him, skinned him and eaten him in that order.
“It ended up being co-main event tonight. Again, in front of 8,000. It’s not easy, and a lot of people think he won the fight. I went into the locker room afterwards. Ricky (Hatton) thought he I got to the fight, and I said, ‘In my opinion, I think he lost 6-4, but I’ll give you my honest opinion.’ But when it’s 6-4, it can go either way,” Hearn said.
What Hearn should be telling Ricky is that he’s not going to put Campbell on his cards anymore because he doesn’t have the talent. He needs to focus on the talented fighters on his Matchroom roster and cut the ones that don’t measure up. I’m sure Ricky Hatton understands.
“Again, he gave us a brilliant fight, but it just wasn’t good enough,” Hearn said. “But he hasn’t really progressed. The performance wasn’t much better than the last performance,” Hearn said, adding that Campbell Hatton didn’t show much improvement over his previous loss to Jimmy Joe Flint earlier this year on the 23 of March
“But, he’s young, and he loves the game, and if he wants to stay active, then he absolutely should,” Hearn said of Campbell.
I don’t know what Hearn is talking about. Campbell vs Flint 2 last night was not a brilliant fight. It was an amateur fight at the hour, with two guys who looked weak and inept, without any power, talent or ring IQ to make a fight fun.
