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Carl Frampton blames Eddie Hearn’s ego for PPV date clash


Carl Frampton returns to world title fights next month but his potential earnings from the second pay-per-view fight of his career will be hit massively by his promoter’s main rival.

Frampton returns to the Manchester Arena on Saturday December 22nd for his second pay-per-view fight, challenging IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington in the inaugural domestic BT Sport Box Office event.

The nine-stone title fight pits the Queensberry stablemates against each other as common promoter Frank Warren looks for a big finish to the year.

However, following the official announcement of this fight, Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Promotions confirmed that they would be running the rematch between heavyweight contenders Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora on the SAME NIGHT at the O2 Arena in London, live on Sky Box Office.

This clash had been mooted by Hearn before the official announcement of Warrington Frampton – albeit after the date of the Manchester fight was widely known.

Hearn has repeatedly insisted that he has gone with December 22nd as it is the only Saturday in December with a 20,000+ seater arena available and that competition is not a factor – with the Matchroom boss predicting his event may outsell Warrington-Frampton twenty times.

A 20,000+ seater venue was an essential component, says Hearn, while delaying to January was never an option as the winner of the fight between Jamaican Whyte and Zimbabwean Chisora, both now living in London, looks likely to be WBA-IBF-WBO champion Anthony Joshua’s opponent at Wembley Stadium on April 13th 2019.

Indeed, in a questionable claim, Hearn has argued that, if he were making a tactical move to hurt Warren and BT, he would run his pay-per-view the week beforehand at a smaller venue as fans would be less-inclined to buy events two weeks in a row

Frampton, though, believes competition is the only factor at play here.

The Tiger’s Bay 31-year-old admits that his fight with Warrington would never generate as much buys and income as a heavyweight grudge match on a much more established platform and feels attaining this ‘victory’ was Hearn’s sole motivator when choosing a date.

Frampton told Boxing Social that “I’m disappointed, obviously.”

“I’m not daft, the heavyweights will do more buys than me and Josh and [Hearn] can say on December 23rd ‘I done more buys than Frank Warren’, and that’s really all it is, it’s ego-driven.”

“Everyone is losing out apart from Eddie Hearn’s ego if I’m being honest.”

Outlining why it is a negative for all involved, Frampton described how “I don’t think it does boxing any good, I don’t think it does anyone any good.”

“Although the heavyweights will do more buys than us, they’ll be losing out, we’ll steal some of their buys off them, so they’re not getting as well-paid as they could have if they had done it on a different night – and we certainly won’t either.”

“It’s a no-win for anyone: boxing fans don’t win because they’ll have to fork out for two – or one, and they’ll have to choose.”

“I just don’t think there’s any need for it. Again, I think it’s ego-driven.”

Watch Carl Frampton’s interview with Boxing Social in full below:

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Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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