Eddie Hearn was rudely interrupted by Chris Eubank Jr as he tried to pay tribute to the late Ricky Hatton at a press conference on Wednesday.
The promoter and the fighter were gathered at a press event in London ahead of next month’s rematch between Eubank Jr and Conor Benn on what has been a hugely sad week for boxing after the death of one of Britain’s great fighters.
Hatton was found dead at his home in Manchester on Sunday morning at the age of just 46. His passing is not being treated as suspicious, police say.
Hearn, representing Benn, attempted to pay his respects to the former world champion at the beginning of today’s press conference but was incredulously cut off by Eubank Jr as he did so, leading to a heated argument in front of reporters.
‘Just firstly, 30 seconds on Ricky Hatton,’ Hearn began as Eubank Jr bellowed: ‘Come on Eddie, there’s no 30 seconds. You know the drill.’
It prompted an understandably angry response from the promoter, who labelled the fighter, son of the legendary Chris Eubank, an ‘a**hole’.
‘All I was going to do was say a few words about Ricky Hatton,’ he added, ‘you’re an a**hole, you talk shit, you’ll get what’s coming to you.’
Eubank Jr meanwhile continued talking over Hearn: ‘I’m not going to sit here and listen to anything you say. I don’t want to hear any of your words. Let’s move on with the press conference, we know the drill.’
Eubank Jr and Benn go head-to-head once again on November 15 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London.
Their last bout was won by Eubank Jr by unanimous decision, who later claimed Hearn and co attempted to ‘sabotage’ the fight in favour of Benn, who wore a Manchester City shirt at today’s conference in memory of Hatton.
Before the childish exchange between Hatton and Eubank Jr, who was no-doubt to blame, there was also a montage of the Mancunian played in tribute to him.
When tensions has calmed down post-conference, Hearn described Hatton as ‘the last of a rare breed of boxers’.
‘I think it was so important to say something,’ he said, ‘That’s a big platform with a lot of people listening. People need to understand the importance this guy had on British boxing and to people individually.
‘As you saw up there, it’s quite a toxic business and in a toxic business for no one to have ever said a bad word about Ricky Hatton just shows you what kind of individual he was.
‘He was the last of a rare breed of boxers and athletes who built their popularity without social media. Without a content team following them around and film certain things as it’ll look good for their imagine.
‘He was just a pure soul with a clean heart that a city fell in love with and then a country fell in love with. He was a guy that gave all of him time to anyone. It doesn’t matter whether you were a CEO of a broadcast company or the person cleaning up afterwards, he gave the same time and respect to both.
‘In a world where he needed help himself, he always chose to help others first. We saw that even recently. He filmed videos and sent videos in the last week or two weeks to people who were struggling saying keep at it, keep fighting. He was an incredible person.’
More to follow.
