Frank Warren accuses his promotional rival Eddie Hearn of ‘disrespecting boxing fans’ over December 22 card

On the same night that Warren has scheduled Josh Warrington's title fight with Carl Frampton, Hearn is staging a card topped by Dillian Whyte's fight with Dereck Chisora

Wednesday 12 December 2018 14:03 EST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Frank Warren has accused his promotional rival Eddie Hearn of disrespecting boxing fans, as the two men prepare to lock horns with rival pay-per-view shows on December 22.

On the same night that Warren has scheduled Josh Warrington’s IBF featherweight world title fight with Carl Frampton, Hearn is putting on a heavyweight rematch between domestic favourites Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora.

Warren announced his show long before Hearn’s and has branded his rival’s decision as “senseless”.

“It's stupid,” he said. “No one wins, it's impossible for anyone to be a winner out of this.

“I'm using hypothetical numbers: if there are half-a-million fans who want to watch it, 250,000 watch one, 250,000 watch the other, they're not going to be able to afford both.

“Then we've both lost 250,000 punters. It's stupid, senseless, if they were running on that date, I'd have never run on that date. We are not the cause of this.

“It's disrespectful to the fans. That's what it is. If you had any feeling about the sport you wouldn't do stuff like this, it's senseless.”

And yet despite his frustration and fear of lost earnings, Warren has said that it is “obvious” what fight fans should put their hand in their pocket for.

“What are you going to watch? Dereck Chisora, who has won one meaningful fight out of eight in his career. And that one was a bingo punch, a lottery punch against [Carlos] Takam. And Dillian Whyte, who was all over the place in his last fight against [Joseph] Parker, he's already been stopped by [Anthony] Joshua.

“They're saying it's an eliminator to face Joshua, it's all like the Lord Mayor's Parade. It's blatant recycling. They're a green company, Matchroom, they recycle [fights]. They're doing the same with Kell Brook trying to do a fight with [Amir] Khan.

Frank Warren is confident he is staging the better card
Frank Warren is confident he is staging the better card (Getty)

“We are delivering the best fighting the best, this is proper pay-per-view.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in