Hear: Campbell Hatton “not progressing” after loss to Flint

Eddie Hearn says Campbell Hatton is “Not really progressing” after watching him lose 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 venue by scores of 97-94, 96-95 and 96-94. The level shown by both fighters was unworthy of the main support fight on the Jack Catterall vs. Regis Prograis card, given the amount of interest the bout generated outside of the UK.

Indeed, the Campbell vs. Flint rematch looked like it belonged on the preliminary card, not the main event. It was too low, and it affected the card. Hearn obviously tries to please his British fans by loading up his events with Brits who are NOT world class and never will be.

Still, he needs to focus on world-class fighters because Americans consider many of the fighters he puts on his card to be unworthy of being shown on DAZN and shouldn’t be on the card’s main or even preliminary portions.

Must hear trim off the fat his Matchroom stable by trimming the fighters who don’t have the talent to fight at the world level, meaning 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). The Matchroom promoter, Hearn, says they “don’t work with fighters” who suffer back-to-back defeats at the regional or English level. However, Hearn says Campbell is a “little different” because he feels he is a “good kid”.

Obviously, Campbell being the son of famous British fighter Ricky Hatton doesn’t hurt either, as he’s gotten attention just like other sons of famous Brits, like Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. Neither of those guys are truly world class, but they get a lot of attention for their fights in the UK, but not so much in the US

If Hearn fighters like Campbell, Eubank Jr., and Benn on the miss cards for celebrity fighters, that’s fine. But they don’t belong on DAZN cards for serious boxing against world-class fighters. They belong on the celebrity level for cheap, mindless entertainment, but not on main cards.

It’s okay to have Campbell on circus cards to watch if you have nothing else to do, but he’s nothing but cheap filler for a quality event. Hearn needs to move away from using all the talentless fighters he’s 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 drop the sons of famous fighters from his events unless they prove they can beat world-class fighters. Unfortunately, Campbell, Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn has never done it. The fighters they beat are always low level.

“It is difficult because he is very young. If a guy was 29 or 30 you’d say, ‘Maybe that’s your destiny’, but at the moment I think Campbell’s level is area and English title. It’s no shame. A lot of fighters never reach that level,” Eddie Hearn said during last Saturday night’s post-fight press conference in Manchester, discuss light welterweight champion Campbell Hatton’s loss to James Flint in their rematch.

“Obviously, with our stable and where we want to take fighters, we don’t really work with and constantly back to back-to-back regional titles and English-level fighters. Campbell is a little different because he’s a really good kid. Two, because he’s working his nuts off, and two because he’s given up two back-to-back brilliant fights, 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, he absolutely needs to continue, whether it’s to go get some fights on smaller shows without the pressure,” Hearn said.

Campbell Hatton should not be on Matchroom’s main part of their cards in the future if he is unable to fight and beat world class opposition. It’s not just UK fans watching Matchroom’s events on DAZN. Americans are watching, and they don’t enjoy paying to see mediocre fighters on undercards, especially not in the main support as was the case last night at the Catterall-Prograis event. Truth be told, even that fight wasn’t a great one. Catterall showed that he is a carbon copy of Shakur Stevenson with his running.

Catterall would have lost if he fought someone good last night, like William Zepeda. Zepeda would have tracked down Catterall like a hunter, bagged him, skinned him, and eaten him in that order.

“He ended up co-main eventing tonight. Again, in front of 8,000. It’s not easy, and a lot of people thought he won the fight. I went into the dressing room. Ricky (Hatton) thought he got the fight, and I said, ‘In my opinion, I thought he lost 6-4, but I’m going to give you my honest opinion.’ But when it’s 6-4, it could go either way,” Hearn said.

What Hearn should have told 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 talented fighters on his Matchroom roster and cut those who don’t measure up. I’m sure Ricky Hatton will understand.

“Again, he gave us a brilliant fight, but he just wasn’t good enough,” Hearn said. “But he’s not really progressing. The performance was not much better than the previous performance,” Hearn said of Campbell Hatton who did not show much improvement from his previous loss to Jimmy Joe Flint earlier this year on March 23.

“But he’s young, and he’s enjoying the game, and if he wants to stay active, 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 battle. It was an amateur hour level fighter, with two guys who looked weak and incompetent, without any strength, talent or ring IQ to make for an entertaining fight.