Eddie Hearn is not taking a backwards step in his row with Kell Brook after the Matchroom chief hit out at the former IBF welterweight champion over ‘loyalty’.
The Sheffield-born fighter takes on pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford on November 14 after signing as a free agent with Bob Arum’s Top Rank, a direct competitor of Hearn and Matchroom.
The bout will be broadcast on Premier Sport, as opposed to Sky Sports, with whom Matchroom has an exclusive agreement.
Eddie Hearn has hit out at Kell Brook amid a row over Sky Sports not showing his next fight
Brook has boxed on Sky for much of his career, and despite signing with Arum, revealed he was disappointed that Hearn did not help strike a deal for the fight to be shown on Sky.
‘I’ve always been a Sky Sports fighter, been in with Shawn Porter, Errol Spence, Golovkin. I’ve made some amazing nights with Sky Sports.
‘The fans, I wanna give back to people that subscribe to Sky Sports, I want my fans to see me fight the pound-for-pound king in Crawford.
‘But it’s not come off the way I wanted it to come off so I’m absolutely gutted.’
Brook signed with Bob Arum for the Terence Crawford bout, which will be on Premier Sport
Brook wanted to box on Sky, adding that he got Hearn out of jail with the Golovkin bout
Brook also claimed that he ‘got him [Hearn] out of jail’ in agreeing to fight Gennady Golovkin in 2016 and that he was ‘more interested in signing books,’ with the promotor releasing a book this month.
And Hearn has hit back at Brook’s comments, insisting that ‘once you turn your back on me, don’t ever turn around and start walking back’.
‘I was really disappointed to be honest with you, and I was quite angry,’ he told iFL TV. ‘I will say this because I do feel like 99 per cent of what was said was total b*******. I do feel like I should give you the truth.
‘Let’s just start with the Crawford fight and Sky situation – When Amir Khan boxed Terence Crawford, Kell Brook flew out there and he was talking to Top Rank.
‘He had meetings with Top Rank probably about that fight and probably about other fights as well which didn’t go down very well with me to be honest with you. I’m an all or nothing kind of guy.
‘I was never involved with one conversation they had with Top Rank regarding this fight, no consultation, no opinion from me, no part of the negotiations of the deal whatsoever.
Hearn said Brook’s comments were ‘b*******’ and laid out examples of his past loyalty
‘They chose to do this to all the them. Was that because they didn’t wanna pay me? Or they wanted to go their separate way?
‘Once you turn your back on me, don’t ever turn round and start walking back to me. You’re either with me or you’re not.’
The Matchroom chief then launched a scathing attack on his former fighter, laying out examples of when he showed total loyalty to the 34-year-old.
‘If you’re with me, I will give you everything as I have done for that young man for eight years.
‘When I talk about loyalty, I talk about sitting in the hospital with him when he spunked the weight and didn’t even train for Carson Jones. Sitting in that hospital with him until five, six o’clock in the morning.
Hearn added that he showed loyalty in putting fights on for Brook such as Mark DeLuca
‘Talking about flying out to Fuerteventura at 4 o’clock in the morning to go and deal with him and be with him in the hospital with the police there. I’ve been up to his house dozens of times, sat in his kitchen with him and his dad, and tried to get his career back on track.
‘So don’t talk to me about loyalty. And what your loyalty is – after I had to give you fights against Jo Jo Dan, Kevin Bizier, Sergey Rabchenko, Michael Zerafa, Mark DeLuca, fights that I’ve done my conkers on over the years – you made the decision to turn your back on me.
‘I don’t have a problem with that, but once you do that, you’re gone, I don’t have to fight for you anymore.
‘Don’t come back when things ain’t working out and that’s what they did. They chose to have me not involved in this fight and when they couldn’t sell it to a UK partner, they come to me, ‘Oh I really wanted it on Sky for the fans.’
‘Don’t talk b*******. You wanted the most money you could get. This is the reality.’
