British boxing promoter Eddie Hearn’s $1 million bet with Jake Paul, on the winner of Saturday’s boxing match between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, wound up amounting to nothing. They did, as Hearn revealed on The MMA Hour, argue down to another bet, with very different stakes.
Essentially, lawyers dismissed the initial bet, as having promoters gambling on the outcome of a fight is a legal gray area, to put it mildly.
Eddie Hearn to Spar with Jake Paul? Boxing Promoter Reveals Bizarre Bet
““It’s not a great look. It’s very sort of gray area of a promoter betting on a fight that he’s promoting as far as integrity, it doesn’t look great.
We spoke to [Most Valuable Promotions co-founder] Nakisa [Bidarian] and Jake, and they were like, ‘What do you want to do?’
And it’s like, ‘we can’t really do the bet, but do you want to come up with something different?’ And we sort of kicked through a few ideas.
We didn’t actually finalize anything, but I think the last thing was, if Katie lost, I would have to go and spar with Jake, and we’d probably stream, maybe even for charity.
And if we won, I would send someone to spar Jake.” When asked who he would send to spar with Jake Paul, Hearn had “a good one”: British boxer Tony Bellew.
“We’ll see if they still wanna. [I’ve got] quite a few. Tony Bellew would be a good one.” Bellew and Paul have some beef already. Paul no-sold Bellew at a press conference for Taylor vs Serrano, while Bellew himself issued a fiery response:
“Just understand mate, if you come and step to me and try and antagonise me the way I’ve seen you do with a couple of UFC guys – for every action there’s a reaction.
I don’t want that. So I’ll stay well away. I don’t want no problems, but if you’ve got a problem, then no problem.” Hearn echoed the sentiment, reminding Paul that he now exists in a “strike-on-sight” world. “The problem with Jake is, he’s now in a world, where it’s a strike-on-sight world.
So if you say something that’s offensive or disrespectful, in this world, it’s not a conversation – it’s strike-on-sight. So if he said something about Tony Bellew, particularly to his family or something like that, there’s no conversation. He will iron him out on sight.”
Should Tony Bellew vs Jake Paul be the surprise sparring – or even pro boxing – match of 2022? Let us know in the comments.
