Richardson Hitchins post-fight comments anger Eddie Hearn
Hearn has admitted he was disappointed with Hitchins’ comments after his win over George Kambosos Jr.
Hitchins announced he was entering free agency after securing an eighth round stoppage over Kambosos Jr at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
A clearly seething Hearn, who has promoted his last six fights since the 27-year-old left Mayweather Promotions to join Matchroom, believes the Brooklyn man has been poorly advised.
“There is no loyalty in boxing, you must look after yourself but when someone has come in when you are on the floor.
“I remember when I first met Richardson Hitchins, the door of his car was falling off.
“To be honest I’ve spent a lot of money in a young man that i really respect and admire.
“I’ve boxed him at Maddison Square Garden I’ve headlined him in Orlando where we really didn’t sell many tickets, and we lost a lot of money.
“I kept with it, i headlined him in Las Vegas where again we didn’t sell many tickets, and we lost money.
“Then I paid for him to get the opportunity to fight Liam Parro for the world title.
The 46-year-old spoke to IFLTV after the fight and gave his thoughts on the comments.
Hearn didn’t jump to blame Hitchins after these comments, instead discussed the people around him.
He opened up on the business side of boxing where managers often exploit fighters with very little risk on their end.
Whereas promotors take the risk of funding fighters’ careers and often end up with a similar cut to a manager.
“Richardson is a very good kid he just has some snakes around him and those snakes will make you feel like they’re your guy.
“The reality is they’re bloodsuckers who actually take a bigger percentage as the promotor who is bankrolling you and paying for your entire path in the sport.
“Managers have zero risk; they let the promotor do all the work.
“After the fight they go ‘thank you very much’ to pay me.
“I understand the game, so it doesn’t infuriate me I just go ‘You’re a dog, you’ll get what’s F**king coming to you’ that’s all.
“That’s boxing.
“Keith Connolly just said, ‘make sure you say you’re a free agent.’”
He closed the interview discussing the future between Matchroom and Hitchins and didn’t close the door on them working together for fights from now on.
The Brit explained the value of working with himself and how fighters are ‘good’ if he has their back.
The importance of loyalty in business is something Hearn labelled pivotal when making deals.
Hearn did, however, show signs of frustration after backing the fighter for so long and stating it has to work for him and the company.
“If I’ve got your back, you’re good.
“If you start f**king around with me.
“Really the situation now is do i want to be in the Richardson Hitchins business if it’s going to be like that.
“I’m pretty big on the loyalty side of business Aswell.
“If you don’t have the respect to say, ‘you’ve completely changed my life’.
“I’ve told him it was an liberty.
“Keith and I will sit down and if there is a deal to be done with Richardson and Matchroom we will consider it.
“It’s got to work for us because it hasn’t worked for us so far.
“We invested, we invested, and we invested in the kid.
“As he said we completely changed his life.”
