Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn recently said corruption allegations involving Jake Paul’s judges “would be addressed,” and the British promoter isn’t waiting to get to that.
Hearn is suing Paul and is seeking more than $100 million.
Attorney Frank Salzano had this to say (from TMZ Sports):
“Both legally and ethically, there is a clear line between opinion and defamatory lies. Jake Paul knows this and he crossed that line on purpose when he wrongly accused Matchroom Boxing and Eddie Hearn of fixing fights.”
“However, he was still given the opportunity to retract his defamatory statements and refused to do so. He will now face the legal consequences of his actions, as Matchroom and Mr. Hearn seek damages well in excess of $100 million given the value and goodwill associated with Matchroom’s business and the damaging nature of Mr. Hearn’s comments. Mr Paul.”
Paul alleged Matchroom paid judge Glenn Feldman for his scores in the April fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano and the August rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua.
Feldman scored Taylor vs. Serrano 97-93 for Taylor, and Usyk vs. Joshua 2 115-113 for Joshua. Both cards were controversial, or at least debated, and most would agree scoring Usyk vs Joshua 2 for Usyk was bad.
Hearn, who is fairly directly responsible for “legitimizing” the idea of ”YouTube boxing” by first endorsing the pro fight between Logan Paul and KSI and then endorsing Jake Paul’s pro boxing debut in 2020, recently said that Paul crossed the line. , and obviously he is looking to make him pay for it.
“We all laughed with Jake and he is an average fighter, but I tell you now, what he said was unacceptable and it will be fixed, because we take this sport, we take our values as a company and a family. very, very seriously,” Hearn said earlier this week.
“We love the sport of boxing. For him to come out with idiotic comments without even thinking about what he said is extremely hurtful to me and us as a business, and very disrespectful to us as a business and family.”
Hearn added: “He doesn’t even understand, when he says, ‘Why does Matchroom keep picking that judge?’ Matchroom doesn’t choose the judge, idiot, the commission does. I don’t even think he knows the rules or the structure or how it works. Sometimes this whole Jake Paul thing is fun and funny and it’s good for business. This is not, and it will be dealt with.”
Paul, who will fight MMA legend Anderson Silva in a Showtime pay-per-view main event on Oct. 29, has not responded publicly.
It’s probably fair to say that any working relationship between Hearn and Paul is over.
