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I told you so – Eddie Hearn claims he always knew ‘exceptional talent’ and his crush Luke Keeler would reach world level

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Things never really progressed from the by now infamous ‘a star is born’ tweet as Tom Doran seemed to have ruined the Eddie Hearn Luke Keeler []love affair.

The Matchroom boss took a real shine to the Ballyfermot middleweight upon watching him stop Gary Boulden in Dublin as far back as 2014 and looked for excuses to add him to the Matchroom roster.

READ: A Star is Born – Eddie Hearn takes a shine to Luke Keeler

Keeler was handed a Prizefighter shot only to exit to Doran in the semi finals after breaking his hand in the quarters. He then got another shot at British title challenger live on Sky Sports only to be stopped minutes after it looked as if he was going to register another sensational knockout.

The winner was being lined up for Chris Eubank Jr, but those reverses made it difficult for Hearn to find progressive passage for the Dub and at that time it looked like he may have fallen out of love with the middleweight.

Although he had never signed Keeler officially there seemed a likelihood the pair were going to work together again.

However, Hearn has always maintained belief Keeler had the ability to become the star he initially predicted.

Considering he promotes Demetrius Andrade and has big plans for the WBO middleweight champion he will be hoping ‘Boo Boo’ beats ‘Coolhand’ in Miami on Thursday night, but that hasn’t stopped the Matchroom boss praising his man crush.

“There will be a lot of support in the house from Ireland for Luke Keeler. We’ve known him a long time, he was on one of our shows and had one of the best two round fights we’ve ever seen against Tom Doran,” Hearn at the final press conference before the fight.

“I always felt he was an exceptional talent that could challenge for world titles. The comeback has been exceptional and he’s been virtually faultless ever since to climb his way up the WBO rankings after a dominant performance over Luis Arias in his last fight.”

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Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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