Eddie Hearn

Hearn was a student at Brentwood School, Essex. He failed to make it into sixth form at Brentwood School as he flunked his GCSEs. Hearn played cricket and football at a decent level, and his father Barry petitioned the school to let him stay on for his sporting record, but the school refused. Eddie said, "I grew up thinking I was a hard nut and in Brentwood School I was. Anywhere else I was a pansy." He then went to Havering Sixth Form College in Hornchurch, which was less selective. Barry encouraged Eddie to study by promising him £1,000 for a C or better grade in his A-level subjects, which were media studies, physical education and business studies. Eddie achieved 2 Cs and 1 A.[3]

Matchroom Sport was founded by his father, Barry Hearn. As group managing director, Eddie Hearn focuses on Matchroom Boxing and fulfilling the company's exclusive televised boxing deal with UK Broadcaster Sky Sports, to broadcast up to 20 shows a year.[4]

After leaving education, Hearn started a career in the West End at a sports management company representing golfers, eventually moving on to promote online Poker with Matchroom with the events being broadcast worldwide. In the UK they were broadcast by Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky Sports. He met Audley Harrison at a poker game and agreed to help him rebuild his career, subsequently getting Harrison a fight with David Haye, signalling the growth of Matchroom Boxing.[5][6]

In May 2018, Hearn revealed boxing's first $1 billion boxing deal (£750 million) as Matchroom and streaming service DAZN signed an agreement to stream shows across America. At the heart of the deal, Hearn and Matchroom Boxing will stage 16 shows in America, which will be streamed exclusively on DAZN in the U.S., while 16 of his UK shows will also be shown on the platform.

Hearn has promoted some large events in recent times, including Joshua vs. Klitshcko at Wembley Stadium, which saw 90,000 in attendance and has been named one of the biggest fights in boxing history. Matchroom Boxing have put on many big nights and PPV events in the UK with many in attendance shown by their UK broadcaster Sky Sports.

Hearn promotes and has promoted many world champions and highly ranked fighters since joining Matchroom Sport, including Anthony Joshua, Carl Froch, Josh Warrington,[7] Amir Khan, Kell Brook, Oleksandr Usyk, Vasyl Lomachenko, Mikey Garcia, Cecilia Brækhus, Artur Beterbiev, Dillian Whyte, Luke Campbell, Danny Jacobs, Billy Joe Saunders, Tony Bellew, Callum Smith, Joseph Parker, Maurice Hooker, Katie Taylor and others.

In 2019, Hearn signed co-promotional deals with Gennady Golovkin and Devin Haney, with their fights to be aired on DAZN in the U.S. and Sky Sports in the UK. He also agreed a deal to promote a professional boxing match between the YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul, which took place on 9 November 2019. This match was heavily criticised by boxing fans across the globe, they claimed KSI and Paul were not suitable to be promoted by Hearn, due to their lack of experience. The fight ended with KSI winning by split decision.[8]

Hearn came under criticism for staging Ruiz Jr. vs. Joshua II in Saudi Arabia, due to the country's human rights record. He defended the decision by stating that Saudi Arabia wanted to improve its image and that his job "is to provide the best opportunities for our fighters."[9]

Hearn lives in Billericay in Essex with his wife Chloe and their two daughters Sophia and Isabella.[10] Hearn has a good relationship with his fighters and is good friends with former boxer Tony Bellew whose career he helped turn around.[11]

• Relentless: 12 Rounds to Success (2020) ISBN 978-1529312195

• Eddie Hearn's account on Instagram
• Eddie Hearn's account on Twitter