Eddie Hearn believes that he has called his bumper September 22 bill ‘Judgement Day’ for a reason and many, if not all, of the stars on show will be heading into bouts that could serve to determine their fistic futures. Following a shock stoppage loss to DeMarcus Corley on May 5 Paul McCloskey stands firmly at a boxing crossroads.

“I think that the next fight is the fight where we find out what’s happening and this is why we called the show Judgement Day because we are judging a lot of people,” explained Hearn, who said “not really” when asked if retirement was discussed with the original flag bearer for his Irish project.

“We have Carl Frampton and Eamonn O’Kane, then Jamie Conlan who we want to sling into a big fight and then, of course, Paul. We are going to find out the truth, which is, what have they got? That’s exciting for me and for the fans and more importantly for the fighters because if they are good enough they will be OK and if they are not then maybe it’s time to do something different.”

Hearn has affirmed that he wants a meaningful bout for former European champion McCloskey, to oversee where the 32-year-old stands with his career and decide whether the Dungiven man can come back refreshed and put his Corley loss down to an off night.

“Basically Paul McCloskey is back,” continued Eddie, “he’ll be on the show and we’ve got to find out what kind of fight he wants and for me it has to be a meaningful fight and Paul knows that it has to be a meaningful fight because we have to find out what he’s got left.

There’s no point in having an eight-rounder, there’s no value in that, he’s not 27 so it’s got to be a fight that will test him again to see what he’s got left in his career. Hopefully Corley was just an off night, he didn’t look at the races at all and sometimes in those types of fights it can be difficult to get the momentum or motivation because it’s a treading water fight. You’re fighting a guy who’s behind you in the world rankings but it’s up to you to get motivated for that and I’m not sure whether he was. So the next opponent needs to be a name that motivates Paul.”

So what sort of names could be under consideration for McCloskey? The southpaw was linked with a WBA crack at Marcos Maidana last year after his stirring points win over classy Colombian banger Breidis Prescott. Curtis Woodhouse was mentioned for the May 5 headliner before Julio Diaz and ultimately DeMarcus Corley accepted the assignment.

“For me that could be a domestic fight and I’ve mentioned Alex Arthur to him and even Derry Mathews,” said Hearn. “But then again from a mindset perspective it can be difficult to move back into that mould and feel that we are beyond that. But his loss to Corley could mean that maybe we are not and he has got to prove that he’s not, so the answer is we will have a meaningful opponent for McCloskey.”