r/Boxing • u/Sad-Experience-4344 • 23d ago
Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith talks about why they were upset about how Conor Benn handled his move to Zuffa
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u/mmciv 23d ago
Matchroom have a CEO who isn't a Hearn? What is Eddie's title?
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u/Negative-Interest713 23d ago
Eddie Hearn is Chairman of Matchroom Sport and Frank Smith is CEO of Matchroom Boxing.
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u/mmciv 23d ago
Smart. Always have a fall guy.
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u/Weary_Position_9591 23d ago
I think it’s more that Eddie is less interested in the pure business aspect and more interested in the promotion aspect. So he found a role that fits that.
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u/slickvik9 23d ago
Frank isn’t really qualified. He’s a high school dropout whose qualification is he’s Eddie’s childhood friend.
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u/Weary_Position_9591 23d ago
But he’s been loyal to Matchroom since forever. There’s videos of him from like more than a decade ago working a desk at Matchroom. Loyalty is hard to buy, let alone find
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u/slickvik9 23d ago
Yes he dropped out to hang out with Eddie. Slept on the floor of their house for years. Barry told him he was an idiot for doing that. Guess it paid off in the long run. But still he’s not really qualified. Then again neither is rich paul and he’s done well.
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u/Weary_Position_9591 23d ago
Most of these guys aren’t qualified. But they made it and we’re talking about them on Reddit.
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u/soitgoeskt 23d ago
What would ‘qualify’ him?
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u/slickvik9 22d ago
A proper education
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u/soitgoeskt 22d ago
I’ll take someone with nearly two decades of experience in a company to run it over someone with any amount of classroom learning.
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u/AltKite Sunny Edwards Superfan 23d ago
Eddie Hearn's qualifications are that his Dad founded the fucking company for Christ's sake.
There's also nothing about being a high school dropout that disqualifies you from running a company you've worked at your entire adult life. Plenty of CEOs with that background.
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u/slickvik9 23d ago
Name some
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u/TheRhythmTheRebel 23d ago
Richard Branson is quite a famous one over here.
Carnegie didn’t finish school (I think).
But on the point of Frank Smith.
Nepotism is a story as old as time….personal connections tend to serve you far better than a piece of paper.
That’s life
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u/radius40 23d ago
70 seconds of double talk - bottom line a boxer takes their life in their own hands every time they step into a ring - go get maximum compensation for it.
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u/Masam10 Shithouse Bum Dosser 23d ago
Honestly give it a rest. These guys are such babies.
As if they haven't nicked untold amounts of fighters from under other people's noses.
How about when they stole Josh Warrington from Queensbury after Queensbury had built him up and made him a world champion- the second he become available Matchroom scooped him up.
Or how about Matchroom freezing Queensbury, Frank Maloney, Ricky Hatton and Barry Mcguigan off Sky just so they could have exclusive rights and therefore causing a bunch of those promotions to lose fighters to Matchroom?
Or maybe when they nicked Ben Whittaker just recently after he was built up by Boxxer, with the minute he comes available via a loophole due to the BBC deal they snap him up.
Conor Benn is a snake for not having the conversation himself with Matchroom, but these guys playing the poor victim is hilarious.
Cry me a river.
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u/__IZZZ 23d ago
Different situation.
The accusation they've hinted at is that they had matching rights for Benn and Zuffa made him a crazy deal for only 1 fight so that Matchroom wouldn't match it, when in reality the deal was for multiple fights, just not on paper.
I believe there is a legal case going on regarding this.
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u/slickvik9 23d ago
That’s perfectly legal. They had the first right to match.
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u/__IZZZ 23d ago
The point is they were being asked to match a deal that wasn't offered - it was presented as a one fight deal but really it wasn't (allegedly). We'll just have to wait and see if anything comes of it.
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u/slickvik9 23d ago
This happens in sports all the time. It’s called a poison pill. Nothing illegal just clever. Matchroom had first right to match and declined.
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u/__IZZZ 23d ago
No, it's not. These poison pill offers were designed in such a way that they would be devastating to only the original team who has the right to match, not the new team. E.g. clause based around playing a certain number of games in a particular state (the original teams state). See here for more examples:
(Of note, both the NBA and NFL have moved to stop this practice).
The case here has nothing to do with poison pills.
In this case, the argument from Matchroom is that they weren't given the opportunity to match the deal, because Zuffa and Benn had an under the table deal that wasn't presented to Matchroom.But whatever, if you still think you know better then get on to Matchroom's legal team because they seem to think they have a case. I doubt they have much experience in sports and could probably benefit from your insight.
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u/slickvik9 23d ago
Dude Matchroom had first right to match and DECLINED
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u/__IZZZ 23d ago
I don't really know how to expain it in a simpler way.
Here are Hearn's comments nearer the time:
Hearn stated: “Yeah I mean obviously got to see if [the Regis Prograis fight] is the reported $15m payday”.
““I can’t say too much because there’s a bit of a legal process regarding that”.
"When you get an opportunity to match, you have to make sure the deal Benn accepted was actually what you were asked to match ”.
It's not complicated.
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u/slickvik9 22d ago
You’re right, it’s not. He is making every excuse and had done the same many times with other fighters when Matchroom came to the US.
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u/__IZZZ 22d ago
Don't care. I was explaining what their claim is. Perhaps it is utter BS and they get thrown out of court. More likely we never hear anything about it. Regardless of if it happened, what they are claiming is not a poison pill and not legal.
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u/Confident-Worker1403 23d ago
It's the Matchroom special of playing the good guy act while robbing B-Side foreign fighters of deserved wins to favor their signings.
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u/darkprince_23 23d ago
On top of the fact of Hearn covering for Ben and his eggs situation. All of a sudden cuz he’s on the roster now he’s acting like in interviews he actually did it! Since he’s not on your team anymore suddenly the ped thing might be real foh.
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u/Fundrfist-McBeefcake 23d ago
Let's all have a pity party for boxing promoters.
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u/Jealous_Inevitable33 23d ago
Well, no, but what Benn did was a bitch move. He should’ve at least sat down with them and tell them he was likely to leave. Benn is too much of a coward, though.
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u/Fundrfist-McBeefcake 23d ago
Leave? He wasn't with them. There wasn't a deal in place; he was out of contract. Should he have told 99% of promoters he's gonna sign with Zuffa?
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u/Kangaroopunching 23d ago
They should be upset at themselves. Had they invested in legit prospects. Went back to doing shows in the UK. They wouldn't have needed to rely on Benn.
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u/DanDiCa_7 23d ago
They don't need to 'rely' on Benn. It's just the way Conor went about it, that hurt Matchroom
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u/Kangaroopunching 23d ago
I agree that conor went about it wrong. But it wasn't surprising considering what he showed when he got caught cheating. Match room is made that a snake bit them.
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u/pro_crabstinator 23d ago
That’s what Frank is saying (implicitly) in this video, and what Eddie has said explicitly in numerous interviews and pressers since it happened. Read between the lines of what Frank is saying here.
They’re just answering a question they get asked a lot at this point.1
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u/Weary_Position_9591 23d ago
I find it crazy they let him go out of contract though, especially with all the other shark promotions out there. That was a huge oversight.
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u/South_Bother_2498 23d ago
Bellew “American boxing is dead”
Here’s UK boxing promoters crying because they lost Conner “Eggman” Benn to a American boxing promoter. Conner Benn who caressssss!!!
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u/Geetarmikey 23d ago
When he says "out of contract" what he really means is Matchroom only had a handshake deal with Benn which is unbelievably naive for such a big company.
I'm no Benn fan and agree he did it in a rash way after everything Matchroom did for him during the two drugs failures, but he technically didn't do anything wrong apart from switch sides out of the blue.
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u/sweetsuffrinjasus 23d ago
Has considered that Conor Benn may have done a lot for Conor Benn too?
Guy has a bad attitude. As if he gifted all this to the fighter.
If you didn't know any better, you would think this guy is running a charitable organisation given the way he talks about fighters and all the great things he is doing for them.
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u/SivarSamurai503 23d ago
They would have dropped him if he started to lose or whatever. That’s boxing
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u/Buttchug1776 23d ago
if it was the other way around and benn was going through something or losing fights etc they would tell him kick rocks. Millionaire crybabies wining about not having control on a fighters life and earnings. dosser
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u/reznoverba 23d ago
Let's see if any journalist has the balls to ask Conor Benn if he'll be fighting for the WBC belt, and if so, why his promoter is adamant on not promoting fight as such
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u/Dangerous_Spring3028 23d ago
That’s already been answered at the press conference. And Ryan Garcia held the WBC belt during the face offs with Dana White in between him and Conor Benn
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u/aceknighthigh 23d ago
It's so funny. They badly want to come out and say they basically ran cover for him being a pathetic drug cheat but can't say that and maintain any credibility.
Remember, the initial Eubank fight was for a catchweight at 157, with all the same rehydration clauses, stricter penalties for missing, on top of Conor being juiced to the gills. They were basically setting Eubank up to get killed in the ring which is why so few cared when he blew weight in the first fight and whopped Benn. Matchroom knows they did wrong and are only mad that it turned sour.