Eddie Hearn claims he turned down chance to re-sign Carl Frampton

Carl Frampton wasn’t worth going the extra mile for suggests Eddie Hearn.

Indeed the Matchroom boss admits he had the resources to sign the two-weight World champion, who allegedly named his price and stated his desire to sign, but Hearn chose not to offer the required loot.

‘The Jackal’ sat with the promoter – whom he had previously been critical of – after he split from Cyclone Promotions and the McGuigans last Summer, but the Belfast featherweight ended up teaming up with Frank Warren and BT Sport rather than Matchroom and Sky Sports.

Hearn had worked with Frampton up and until his European super bantamweight title win over Kiko Martinez but, following a clash with Barry McGuigan, Cyclone Promotions assumed full control for the subsequent eight fights in which he won and unified world titles at 122lbs before moving up to featherweight and trading wins with WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz.

Following Frampton’s acrimonious split with the McGuigans, Hearn was outspoken in his desire to rekindle the relationship – but obviously not keen enough.

The Essex 38-year-old admitted after Frampton signed with Warren that he was most likely outbid, and has now revealed that he didn’t bring out the big guns in negotiations.

The Matchroom boss claims he didn’t put one of his ‘gold’ offers – the kind he believes fighters just can’t turn down – when in talks with the man who fights Nonito Donaire on April 21st.

Indeed the man, who looks after Ireland’s current World champions Ryan Burnett and Katie Taylor, stated that he was asked to up his offer and chose not to.

“It’s a no brainer – generally if we want a fighter we will generally there haven’t been many we haven’t signed when we went for gold,” Hearn told IFL TV before being asked about Frampton.

“I didn’t go for gold. I made him a good offer and I was asked, if I could just increase my offer, ‘you get me’, and I didn’t want to. That’s the truth.”

“I would have loved to have worked with Frampton – good bloke, a good fighter, but there were many more levels I could have gone to try and win that but I didn’t.”

Watch Eddie Hearn’s interview with IFL TV in full below: