Jake Paul’s accusations about potential fight fixing may lead to a lawsuit from Matchroom CEO Eddie Hearn.
The threat of legal action came as a result of comments Paul made about boxing judge Glenn Feldman after he offered up a pair of puzzling scorecards in recent fights involving athletes promoted by Matchroom. In particular, Paul’s ire towards Feldman started after he scored Katie Taylor beating Amanda Serrano by the widest margin of any judge overseeing the bout back in April
“I still think Amanda Serrano won the fight [over Katie Taylor],” Paul told IFL TV. “Then you see how this judge Glenn Feldman, who had the biggest gap between Taylor and Serrano. Everyone pretty much had it a draw… a draw or that Amanda won. But there’s this judge, Glenn Feldman, who scored it such a big gap for Taylor, gave rounds that Amanda clearly won, to Taylor.
“Then this judge, Glenn Feldman, shows up in Saudi and scores Anthony Joshua to win [over Oleksandr Usyk]. Everyone who watched the fight [knows] it’s not a split decision. Usyk had a runaway victory, clearly won the fight. This judge, Glenn Feldman, gives it to Anthony Joshua? It’s like a repeated crime here. This type of s***, I’m going to call it out here in boxing because it’s bulls***. Clearly, this guy is getting paid money by Matchroom Boxing.”
In response, Hearn fired back at Paul while mentioning that legal action could be taken against the YouTube celebrity turned boxer for defaming his promotion’s name.
“I hate all that but at the end of the day sometimes you’ve got to teach these people,” Hearn told Boxing Social. “You’ve got two options really — you can chin him or sue him. I’m not around him, I’m not going to chin him anyways. I hate it but it’s like it’s so idiotic and it’s actually disrespectful to the sport that he knows nothing about.
“Firstly he says ‘why does Eddie Hearn keep using these judges?’ I don’t use any judges. The commission selects all judges and various commissions around the world. By the way, Glenn Feldman is one of the best judges, speak to anyone in the sport. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. To make those allegations, really it pissed me off and actually upset me. It’s actually led me to take it further.”
According to Hearn, the only thing that will stave off a possible lawsuit would be a public mea culpa from Paul following the damning accusations he made.
“I want an official apology from him and if he won’t then we’ll see what we have to do,” Hearn said. “But I’m not having our name in this business defamed and the integrity of what we do. It’s very important to us and our love for the sport by some geezer that has no idea what he’s talking about.
“Listen, he’s good for the sport, we have a laugh, he’s average, he don’t like me, Taylor-Serrano, etc. That’s another level that is. So that will be dealt with.”
Despite Paul’s claims, Hearn stated that it won’t doom a potential rematch between Taylor and Serrano because he understands the magnitude of a second fight between two of the best women’s boxers in the world.
The first fight ended up as a 10-round barnburner and Hearn says he wouldn’t be doing his job if he let Paul’s accusations somehow torpedo a massive rematch like that.
“Yes [I would continue to work with him] because that’s my job,” Hearn said. “It’s not about me or Matchroom. It’s my job to deliver for my fighters. There is a massive payday out there for Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor to give the public part 2 of one of the best fights we’ve ever seen. We should all be working to deliver that.
“I’m not all of a sudden going to say ‘Katie Taylor you can’t fight Amanda Serrano because Jake Paul said some stupid things’ but ultimately we’ve got to defend ourselves and we’ve got to stand up for what we believe in.”
