Eddie Hearn believes that the Conor McGregor Vs Floyd Mayweather boxing match was a 'con job', though also admits the genius way in which the fight was promoted.
Hearn was speaking in an interview hosted by Alistair Campbell, and had a dim view of Mayweather McGregor as a boxing spectacle, and believes that Mayweather went easy on the Notorious in the match:
McGregor Mayweather was one of the greatest hit and runs in terms of a cash grab. It was genius but it was disgusting for the sport of boxing, because anyone in the sport of boxing knew what it was, knew that Floyd Mayweather held him up for eight or nine rounds.
As a boxing fanatic and a hard core fan, someone who's followed the sport for 30 years. I had one eye on it thinking 'I can't believe what I'm watching here and then the other one looking around at the media tours, the PPV numbers going this is absolutely fucking genius, and McGregor is absolutely brilliant.
I think it was a con job. He was never going to win, and i think everybody involved knew that. But everybody involved knew he was going to break PPV numbers. It was the fascination of the bizarre. It was an MMA legend against a boxing superstar in an event that would captivate the casuals.
You had two geniuses in the ring who would have shook hands behind closed doors after the fight and gone 'great work son, great work'.
Hearn went on to say that neither fighter has any interest in the good of the sport and that it's a fine balance between 'circus' and what's good for the sport:
He's (Mayweather) done in the sport of boxing, he respects the sport of boxing but he's not looking at what that event will do for boxing. His argument would be look how many new fans that had brought to the sport and there is that argument because you can be guaranteed that MMA fans watched that fight that stayed with the sport and vice versa.
But it was a mismatch, it was a farce, but it was a great piece of business.
