Promoter Eddie Hearn was pleased with himself as he hyped up Artur Beterbiev during the final press conference for his fight tonight against Dmitri Bivol in Riyadh.
Hearn pushed Beterbiev’s buttons, calling him “arrogant” and bragging about how Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) would beat him for their undisputed light heavyweight championship in Riyadh. Of course, that could backfire on Hearn.
By angering IBF, WBC and WBO champion Beterbiev, Hearn is motivated to defeat Bivol even more than he has before, which could lead to a knockout tonight. Promoters usually don’t go out of their way to annoy Beterbiev because it’s not a good thing to give him 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+.
“That’s my job, and if you look at the numbers, that track does. Even Artur Beterbiev should die for me, “Thanks for that,” said Eddie Hearn. Boxing Newswho discussed how he ripped unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev during the last press conference, called him “arrogant” and grilled him about how his fighter, Dmitri Bivol, will defeat him. “He’s not bothered because he doesn’t care about his profile.
The hard work of upsetting Beterbiev shouldn’t have fallen on Hearn’s shoulders if Bivol had spoken, but he’s been sounding like a broken record for weeks, stuck in the doldrums. Hearn should have given Bivol talking points for his interviews and press conferences to get something fresh out of him. He was completely useless for the promotion.
“You see what I also did with Terence (Crawford). It’s the same kind of thing,” Hearn said. “These guys have great personalities, but it’s the promoter’s job to get that personality out of them and showcase that personality to the world, and Artur talked more in that press conference yesterday, probably in his last six fights together, and he was funny, he was really funny.”
Hearn didn’t get much out of Crawford promoted his fight against Israil Madrimov on August 3rd. Hearn did most of the marketing for that fight. To get more of these fighters, Hearn must give them flash cards with different discussion items to save and then get some acting.
They need to bring some drama to their interviews and press conferences. They are supposed to sell themselves, and they cannot do without drawing cards and acting ability. Even the great actor Marlon Brando would read cue cards during his movies rather than learn his lines.
“I think sometimes when I play backwards and forwards with fighters, you naturally have different kinds of scary levels. He’s definitely one up there … I’m not here to make friends,” Hearn said of Beterbiev.
