Before bad optics intervened, Eddie Hearn and Jake Paul planned to put $1 million on the line with the outcome of Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano.
Then, they bet their heads.
Monday’s The MMA Hour , Hearn described how the bet evolved into something more personal when rational (legal) minds highlighted the ethical issues with promoters placing money on their fights.
Hearn said Matchroom exec Shaun Palmer was waiting when he stepped off the dais after excepting Paul’s $1 million bet, and the look on Palmer’s face told him everything he needed to know.
” “It’s certainly not a good look,” Hearn stated about his counsel’s reactions. “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.”
Paul has a reputation for placing wagers on opponents or interested parties, such as UFC President Dana White. However, Serrano is the promoter of Serrano, so he theoretically is bound by a completely different set rules. This is what made Serrano’s idea great, but it didn’t do much.
This didn’t stop interested parties trying to make it more exciting.
” We spoke with [Most Valuable Promotions co-founder] Nakisa [Bidarian], Jake and asked them what they wanted to do. “And it’s like, we can’t really do the bet, but do you want to come up with something different? We had a lot of 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,” Hearn said. “And if we won, I would send someone to spar Jake.”
Hearn won this Saturday’s fight after Taylor survived some tense rounds and was able to defeat Serrano using two out of three scorecards. The history-making fight – no women had previously headlined an event at Madison Square Garden – brought the house down and immediately spurred talk of a rematch, potentially on Taylor’s home soil at the 80,000-seat Croke Park in Dublin.
Hearn has several options in mind if Paul decides to honor the bet.
“We’ll see if they still wanna,” he said. “[I’ve got] quite a few. Tony Bellew would be a good one.”
Paul did not sell Bellew during a Taylor vs. Serrano press conference. This prompted a scathing response from the ex-champion and former boxing commentator. They reportedly enjoyed a friendly exchange backstage on Saturday. But Hearn said Paul’s approach to promotion may lead to some less-than-pleasant outcomes.
“The problem with Jake is, he’s now in a world, where it’s a strike-on-sight world,” Hearn said. So if someone says something offensive or discourteous, this is 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’ll iron him out .”
