Eddie Hearn has formed a powerful partnership with Saudi Arabia’s sporting head honcho, His Excellency, Turki Alalshikh.
Together Hearn and Alalshikh have delivered two fights with Anthony Joshua, a five vs five event pitting Hearn’s Matchroom against Frank Warren’s Queensberry as well as Alalshikh’s maiden venture into the USA, headlined by Terence Crawford’s win over Israil Madrimov earlier this month.
By his own admission though, the now fruitful relationship was once anything but, with Alalshikh even snubbing messages from Hearn.
Alalshikh, who is the head of the General Entertainment Authority for Saudi Arabia, entered the boxing world with a highly-controversial bout between then-WBC titlist, Tyson Fury and former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou back in October to open the now prominent Riyadh Season.
Hearn, like many observers, was outspoken in his criticism leading up to the clash, which saw Fury climb off the canvas to scrape past the Cameroonian by split decision in a colossal shock.
“I probably did one of the most stupid things I’ve ever done,” the 45-year-old said on Cigar Talk.
“I really didn’t speak favourably about Fury-Ngannou.
“So, he’s putting on this event and there’s this big promoter, who used to work with these other guys [Skills Challenge] and now he’s kind of slagging off Fury-Ngannou and slowly I’m coming down the order of flavour of the month.
“When I realised His Excellency is there to stay, I’m reaching out to him on social media and I’m saying, ‘you’re in London, let’s meet’ and it’s like ‘seen.’
“I’m like, ‘oh no.’
“A few people were telling me, ‘he’s not happy with you, everything you said about Fury-Ngannou.’
The Essex promoter met with the Saudi chief to thrash out a deal for Joshua to face Otto Wallin in December and their first interaction was perhaps unsurprisingly a tad frosty.
“Thankfully he isn’t driven by ego and politics and he wanted to do a fight with Anthony Joshua, so probably thought, ‘I’ll meet Eddie Hearn.’
“I went to his suite in London and I sat down and he said to me, ‘I have to say, I didn’t like what you said about Fury-Ngannou.’
“I’m like, ‘I didn’t like it, but it ended up being amazing, so well done.’
“He said to me, ‘we are a fast train. Do you want to be on the train or do you want to be on the platform, waving at the train going past?’
“And I just went ‘Choo Choo!’
“Since then we’ve had a brilliant relationship.”
Their partnership has gone from strength-to-strength, with Alalshikh even supporting Snooker events, which are under Matchroom’s umbrella and he has been the instrumental mediator between Hearn and Warren, once bitter rivals who are now working in unison on a number of events.
The pair will once again unite in September to stage Joshua’s attempt to become a three-time heavyweight world champion when he meets Daniel Dubois for the IBF crown at Wembley Stadium on September 21.
Should Joshua overcome his countryman and Tyson Fury gains revenge over Oleksandr Usyk in December, Alalshikh and Hearn may well deliver Fury vs Joshua, a bout that has eluded the world for years.
