Matchroom boxing magnate and captain of the descending DAZN Boxing Titanic, Eddie Hearn, once again said something silly into the microphone. This time, however, there’s some real-world ugliness to his slickness.
In an interview for The DAZN Boxing Show, the UK promoter gave the heavyweight champion a winged compliment when talking about lightweight champion athlete Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“The dangerous thing about Gervonta Davis is that he’s not a deep thinker who doesn’t speak clearly,” Hearn said. “I don’t mean it disrespectfully. He’s a lousy asshole like Mike Tyson. That makes him dangerous because he’s not scared, you can’t understand his thoughts.”
No, of course…There’s nothing disrespectful about that.
This comment is offensive on a few fronts.
First, it taps into stereotypes of boxers as speechless animals, created only to serve brutality and hard labor.
Second, this kind of talk is clearly racist, especially in boxing, which persists in the dark corners of polite society. Even in this day and age, the sport has not been entirely removed from the overt racism in both the structure of the business and the mass media itself.
Many prominent boxing voices were quick to react to Hearn’s statement. Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, who had an online chat with Hearn, is one of the first and has the most aggressive tone.
“@Eddie Hearn, you mean it disrespectfully to your privileged racist,” Ellerbe wrote via Twitter. “Who do you think you are talking about is someone who doesn’t think deeply or doesn’t speak clearly? That’s the problem, mf like you think you’re superior to others. We don’t play that game here buddy (damn clown).
Whether you like/respect Ellerbe or not, it’s hard to refute his claims. The words are right there for everyone to hear and see. And when taken alongside the comments of his father Barry Hearn (founder of Matchroom Sports, who passed the business over to Eddie), it makes a strong case that Hearn at least does as well. amazingly lacking in self-awareness and sensitivity like a privileged nepo baby.
Back in 2019, at a press conference to hype up the competition between Dillian Whyte and Oscar Rivas, eldest brother Hearn regretfully recalled the days when promoters like him were involved in “slave trafficking” activities. rules” and do what they please with the boxers.
“Matchroom Sport has a match-by-match arrangement with Dillian Whyte. Isn’t that strange?” Heard. “He’s not tied up like last year’s slave contractor.”
“When I do boxing, it’s much easier,” he continued, with Whyte, the Jamaican Londoner, standing right beside him, chuckling politely. “We are slave traders! We have these people and they are working for us and we are the boss. The pendulum swings. Now I have to say, ‘Mr. Dillian Whyte.’ I have to respect.
Giving maximum benefit to all doubts, Hearns said as privileged men make a living from exploiting the work of people of color and as such, it is difficult to garner respect.
However, Eddie, who loves classical R&B and occasionally hums classic soul tunes during scary moments in interviews, is particularly annoyed with this type of talk. It recalls the classic image of empty Jersey kids appropriate for hip-hop culture and idolizes African-American athletes, but says nothing but racist, anti-human rhetoric. African American.
Eddie Hearn hasn’t gone that far with his recent comment. He won’t go SO far. He’s smarter than that. Though, looking at some of the overtly racist stuff going on in boxing — much of it perpetrated by real members of its own media — there probably wouldn’t be too much of a consequence if he is NOT really obstinate.
Either way, Gervonta Davis will get the last laugh in this bit of discomfort, via the pretty obvious Twitter post.
“Not being a deep thinker and not speaking clearly made me ‘don’t’ sign the bullshit offer he sent,” Davis replied, referring to Hearn’s attempts to lure him in. we enter into a contract.
Expect more of Hearn’s damage control to come, with a series of heated social media battles between fans.
