Eddie Hearn has admitted that even despite his many defeats, the 5v5 this summer was his highlight for the year.
Hearn pitted five of his best Matchroom fighters against five representatives from Frank Warren’s Queensberry in a massive pay-per-view event. However, he lost all five in an awful night at the office in Riyadh.
To compound the promoter’s woes, he had to pay his rival-turned-friend a £1million forfeit for his defeat after making a brash bet early in the week. But he looks back on the memory as one of his favorites in an exciting week.
Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren competed in a 5v5 tournament in Riyadh
On June 1 this year, Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren pitted five fighters from their promotional stables against one another. Hearn even drafted in the former world champion Deontay Wilder to bolster his team, but it didn’t help the results too much.
The rules were as follows: Two points for a knockout victory, and one point for a decision win, with draws scoring no points either way. There was also a designated team captain; Wilder for Hearn and Hamzah Sheeraz for Warren, who would get double points.
The teams were Deontay Wilder, Filip Hrgovic, Austin Williams, Nick Ball and Craig Richards for Matchroom and Zhilei Zhang, Daniel Dubois, Hamzah Sheeraz, Raymond Ford and Willy Hutchinson for Queensberry.
Ultimately, the complex scoring system and team dynamics didn’t matter too much as Warren won a 5-0 clean sweep. However, the concept was popular, and looks to be returning next year; perhaps with Hearn against Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy stable.
Eddie Hearn names 5v5 tournament as his highlight of 2024
Surprisingly despite the results, Eddie Hearn has fond memories of the fight week, which took place towards the end of May. He reckons that the pair made for a good duo and he had fun working with Riyadh Season for the event.
After listing Katie Taylor’s win over Amanda Serrano on the night of Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson as his initial pick, he also noted the Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois fight night. However, that result didn’t go his way, and he ended up coming to the conclusion of the 5v5.
“What might have been the highlight, honestly, was the 5v5,” he told IFL TV’s Kugan Cassius, who bluntly told him that he had been ‘battered’ that night. “Yeah, but I just love being part of that format and you know on fight week it was so surreal.
“We were walking at Boulevard City and it was like me and Frank on all the screens everywhere. The concept was so smart and it was so groundbreaking that I don’t mind. If it’s good for the sport, obviously I’d much rather have won and it was good for the sport, but how good was it?”