Eddie Hearn believes Tim Tszyu’s super welterweight unification clash with Sebastian Fundora will severely disappoint at the box office.
Premier Boxing Champions, a key rival to Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing in the USA, stage their first show this Saturday since announcing a new broadcast deal with Amazon Prime with Tszyu putting his WBO crown on the line against Fundora at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The pair will also battle it out for the vacant WBC belt in a fight which will cost $70 on Amazon Prime pay-per-view.
Fundora, who replaced the injured Keith Thurman on just 12 days’ notice, is coming off a knockout loss to Brian Mendoza, who Tszyu comfortably beat by unanimous decision in his last bout and Hearn feels this makes the fight a difficult sell.
“10,000, 15,000 something like that,” the 44-year-old told Pro Boxing Fans.
“I quite like the fight.
“I think it’s a better fight than the Thurman fight, but Fundora just got knocked clean out by the guy that Tim Tszyu beat easily.
“He’ll walk through Fundora.
“It’s great that they’ve kept the show on.”
The winner of Tszyu vs Fundora is likely to fight undisputed welterweight champion, Terence Crawford next who has exercised his right to become mandatory challenger with the WBO at 154lbs.
Hearn insists the undercard, which features Rolando Romero defending his WBA super lightweight world title against Isaac Cruz, is not strong enough to attract a major audience for Amazon Prime in their first dive into boxing.
The Essex promoter does concede that the streaming giant have fights coming up though which are likely to appeal to a wider number of viewers with proven box office draws in Canelo Alvarez and Gervonta ’Tank’ Davis both gearing up to fight on the network.
“I’ve been guilty in the past of kind of like you try and build a pay-per-view card out of nowhere and you’re like adding fights and adding fights,” Hearn added.
“But that one, Rolly against Cruz, it’s alright and then Fundora against Tim Tszyu.
“No one knows who Tim Tszyu is in America.
“Really good fighter by the way and I think he’s going to be a star and Fundora’s just got cleaned out.
“But, Amazon Prime have got Canelo vs [Jaime] Munguia [on May 4], even though they’ve got to share it with DAZN, they’ve still got a piece of that fight and they’ll probably do Tank.
“So they’ve got big pay-per-views to come, but this one is going to flop.
“But, you know, Tim is an exciting fighter.”
