Hearn reaffirmed Monday Matchroom will use “Backyard Boxing”

On Monday, Matchroom Boxing promoter, Eddie Hearn, reiterated that his organization has a full plan to stage fights in the backyard of the company compound/headquarters in England. And, they intend to make use of it, if boxing in the U.K. gets the go-ahead starting in July.

Hearn reaffirmed to Talksport on Monday is that Matchroom has been making plans for several weeks to have what they’re calling “Fight Camp” matches in the back property of the sprawling mansion that houses Matchroom offices, etc.:

"You’ve heard of Madison Square Garden… well, this is the new garden."@EddieHearn reveals plan to stage boxing matches at Matchroom HQhttps://t.co/cccERidKIY

— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) May 18, 2020

Hearn told Talksport,

“Our project restart is about staging live boxing from the garden there with a canopy. You’ve heard of Madison Square Garden and this is the new garden.

“We talked about doing boxing in studios and there’s a lot of people doing it. I just feel like when you are talking about a gladiatorial sport, like boxing, you need to create that moment, that energy, not just for the viewer at home but the fighter as well.

Hearn continued, “that’s why part of the thought of staging it outdoors in the garden, fireworks, drones, is actually to build a TV show that when you turn on the TV you don’t see four walls of a dark studio, you see this amphitheater of a gladiatorial sport.

“It’s going to be a different kind of broadcast and it’s going to be intriguing. It’s going to be one of the few sports that is going to be intriguing behind closed doors.”

This reconfirmation comes on the heels of the exclusive item that the Daily Mail of London had on Friday learning that rather than worrying about studios, or empty arenas and stadiums, that Matchroom has creatively been planning for something that can make use of the sprawling estate and the property in back of it.

Hearn told the Mail Friday that they will follow British Boxing Board of Control guidelines and once given clearance to begin the fights: there will be a maximum of five of them on a fight card in successive weeks. Fighters, their teams, and all personnel with the fights will be housed at the estate in quarantine and tested for Covid-19

The Daily Mail reported that these first such card will be a woman’s World title clash between Terry Harper and Natasha Jonas either on July 11th or 18th. There would apparently be three more successive Saturday fight cards that would eventually culminate with England’s Dillian Whyte fighting his postponed heavyweight Contender battle with former IBF champion, Russian Alexander Povetkin.

Whyte and Povetkin’s 12 round non title bout was to have headlined on May 2nd in the Manchester Arena before being postponed by the Coronavirus outbreak. Both fighters are hoping for title consideration, although both have previously failed pre and post fight drug tests.

Hearn has further detailed that there plan will be for approximately 90 individuals to stage the fights, plus the TV broadcast, etcetera on the Matchroom property.

If the BBOC approves, official announcement of the first Matchroom “backyard boxing” fight card could come, as soon as later this week.