Hatton Promotions have turned down short notice proposals from Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn in respect of a twitter proposed bout on the undercard of Anthony Joshua’s Cardiff bout on 28th October.
The proposed bout was heating up on twitter with the pair both very vocal on the platform and evidently with no love lost.
However in the end Ricky has confirmed that it simply was not possible.
“I got an offer from Eddie exactly 7 weeks out from the fight. I know why he does it. He protects his fighters and brings the money to the table late in the day to give his fighters maximum advantage. I don’t think any of Whyte’s opponents since Joshua have had a full camp. There is no one better in the business at the minute at working the angles with the fans, social media and getting the job done. But equally we are in a position where we must do what is best for our fighter and we have decided not to bow to the pressure”.
Lucas Browne and Hatton Promotions have had their well documented issues but there is no divide between Promoter and boxer on this occasion. Matt Clark- Lucas’ manager- confirmed “everyone at our end was perfectly aligned. I thought Eddie was light on the money to start with and he must have as well because to be fair he moved a bit but ultimately all of the team felt notice was too short. We like the fight, we think it makes a great fight, but it’s deserving of a fair platform and that is not what we have here”.
Browne lives in Western Australia, but would need to travel across Australia to Sydney for a fight camp. He would then of course have to travel to the UK with time to acclimatise before taking on the most important fight of his life.
In the end team Browne felt the timescales would have been near impossible and would have put Lucas at a significant disadvantage.
Ricky added “At the end of the day had Eddie blown our minds with the money, then you have to consider if it’s worth the gamble for Lucas to fight effectively without a camp. That was not the case by a long shot here”
Far from a game of brinkmanship no counter financial proposal was made by Hatton Promotions. “Ultimately, I’m a straight forward guy and once I had established the logistics it was clear to me the fight would not happen for the 28th and the money was not mind blowing. Eddie will tell you no doubt, I never made a counter offer”.
“Fans will be disappointed of course. What I would say is that if Eddie wants to give Lucas proper notice for the fight, we can look to make the numbers work, then 100 percent Lucas has the fight”
For now Hatton Promotions will continue with the others options that it was already looking at prior to the late Matchroom approach and hope to confirm fight details shortly.
