Eddie Hearn: No One Fills Anthony Joshua’s Shoes Commercially

Promoter Eddie Hearn says Matchroom has no one to fill Anthony Joshua’s shoes once he retires from the sport. He suspects that no one will come along for the next four to five years, which can duplicate what the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) has done since he signed him 11 years ago.

(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)

Hearn feels AJ will keep fighting for at least another year for two or three fights, and then they’ll go from there. Those fights are all expected to be big ones against Tyson Fury twice and possibly a rematch against Daniel Dubois.

Joshua started his career with Matchroom in 2013, knocking out his first 14 opponents within three rounds, which got the UK boxing public excited about him.

He hadn’t performed well in the 2012 London Olympics, winning several fights by controversial decision that people outside of the UK saw as Joshua being gifted due to the fights taking place in England.

If that Olympics had taken place in a neutral country, some believe Joshua wouldn’t have medaled at all. He would have lost to Italy’s Roberto Cammarelle, Cuba’s Erislandy Savon, Kazakhstan’s Ivan Dychko, and China’s Zhilei Zhang. I watched all those fights, and I thought Joshua should have lost to all four.

In the pros, Hearn has done a captain’s job of matching Joshua against the right type of opponents to make him look great. It wasn’t until he fought Wladimir Klitschko that fans began to recognize that he wasn’t as good as they’d been led to believe.

“Financially, we make a lot of money, and AJ fighting, every time he fights, we do well, but compared to the entire revenue, particularly boxing’s entire revenue, it’s quite a small portion, really,” said Eddie Hearn to Secondsout when asked whether it would hurt Matchroom financially if Anthony Joshua retires.

“It’s the nature and the stature of the man and the profile of the events. Financially, it doesn’t make a difference to us, but personally, it makes a difference to us because it’s been an incredible journey, and for British fight fans as well, it makes a big difference.

“So, he’s definitely not retiring yet. I think you’re going to see him for at least another year, which is two or three fights, and then we’ll see. But the next decision is going to be very important. I don’t think anyone will honestly ever fill his shoes,” said Hearn when asked who in his Matchroom Boxing stable will fill Joshua’s shoes.

Joshua may retire if he’d knocked out early in his next fight, be it against Daniel Dubois or Tyson Fury. If Joshua gets stopped in the first three rounds, he’ll probably hang up his gloves rather than continue to be embarrassed.

“When I say that, people will go, ‘Ah, there’s better fighters.’ Yeah, maybe, but commercially, no one will be able to do what Anthony Joshua has done for boxing, certainly not in the next four to five years,” said Hearn.

Someone could outshine Joshua commercially within five years, but it’ll be tough to do because a lot of fighters tend to slack off after they make a lot of money. Joshua hasn’t done that.

Also, fighters don’t compete often enough when they start bringing in the dough, and they can’t increase their commercial status by fighting just once a year. They either don’t realize that, or they’re just lazy once they get a bunch of money. Joshua hasn’t been lazy, but he’d also been well-matched by Hearn to keep him protected.

“There’s no one in boxing at the moment that can even come close to being commercially the size of Anthony Joshua. Hopefully, there will be more, but he’s a one-off for sure,” said Hearn.

Fans in the UK are into boxing a lot more than they are in the U.S. and in many other countries. Joshua would have never been the same kind of star in the States coming out of the 2012 Olympics as he was in the UK because he would have had to fight better opposition.

American fans wouldn’t have taken notice of Joshua if he were matched against the tomato cans that Hearn put him in with during his first 14 fights. Moreover, they wouldn’t have made a big deal about Joshua beating 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko the way that the British public did because they’d have seen that Wlad was old.