Netflix’s new sports documentary series, Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen, begins by implying that the founder and patriarch of the Matchroom family business, the 76-year-old Barry Hearn, is not entirely certain that his son and the face of the company, Eddie Hearn, is ready to take over the business. It’s a bit of unnecessary and unbelievable drama that the show wants to hook you with. Don’t be fooled; when “Bazza,” as the elder Hearn is known, either walks away from the business or, more likely, falls over at his desk, Eddie Hearn will be the one leading Matchroom going forward. As much as the series would like you to believe there is some sort of Succession-level drama at play, there simply isn’t. It’s Eddie Hearn or no one, and it’s not going to be no one.
This latest Netflix sports doc has some of the flaws that many of their recent “all access” productions have suffered from. It’s a bit too flashy with the wealth porn (we don’t need that many overhead shots of the Hearn mansion), and probably not nearly as “inside” as it would like the viewer to think it is. Still, Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen has two things going for it that bring it up a level or two over similar fare on the streaming network: Legitimately engaging protagonists, and the good fortune to have the kind of setbacks and successes that make a documentarian’s mouth water over the course of the over one-year period the show covers.
The Many Faces of Matchroom Sport
Barry Hearn founded Matchroom Sport as a sports promotion company back in 1982. Since then, the company has grown from a regional power in the UK to a European power, and now as an increasingly global player in the market of three particular sports: snooker (pool), darts, and boxing. While boxing is the most high-profile of the three legs that support the business stool, snooker and especially darts are very significant as well. The business started with snooker, and, much to my surprise, not only is darts the easiest part of the business to manage, it’s also the most profitable.
It becomes clear early on that boxing is Eddie Hearn’s baby. For all the headaches of what Eddie refers to as a “dirty business,” no other sport pulls him in the way the fight game does. Along with his boxing CEO Frank Smith, Eddie Hearn deals with the agita-causing organizations and rival promoters, and all the grief that comes with them in the sport. It’s actually a source of amusement watching the head of their darts division, Matthew Porter, seeming to breeze through his day-to-day booking events, shepherding their prodigy, the easygoing 17-year-old Luke Littler, and turning up on event day to watch a dart tournament in a small room away from the crowd while eating snacks, as if he hasn’t a care in the world.
On the other side of the stress fence is Emily Frazer, who heads up the snooker side of the business and is driven to prove she can elevate the sport and Matchroom’s place in it. Frazer claims to have not been on a single date in two years and to have no idea what a real vacation looks like.
Matthew Porter aside, to work for Matchroom Sport is to immerse yourself in the family business above all else. Smith can be seen at one point suggesting he may be falling out of love with all the traveling and headaches of boxing, but also states that he would never be able to work a corporate job. Porter, Frazer, and Smith may not share the last name of Hearn, but they certainly appear to be lifers.
Of course, since this is a series about Eddie Hearn’s desire to one day take over the business in full, and his greatest love in sport is boxing, the fight game largely dominates the proceedings. That’s a good thing, not just for fight fans, but also for the viewer, because that is where the true drama lies with Matchroom Sport in the series, and in the future.
Talking Turki
For all the prominence that Matchroom Sport has in boxing, the arrival of Turki Alalshikh, the billionaire Chairman of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation, into the boxing arena in recent years has shaken up the sport. Alalshikh is a mysterious and controversial figure focused on backroom deals. The Saudi sports promoter has been accused of human rights violations that include repression, disappearances, and the torture of those who oppose the rule of the current Saudi Arabia Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Salman. You will find not even a second of discussion about those alleged malfeasances in Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen, a sizable miss that can reasonably be questioned as a bending of the knee by Netflix, a company that has become increasingly involved with live sports, including boxing. It’s a real miss by the series to present Alalshikh as something of an incredibly wealthy and eccentric mover and shaker. While the series discusses the dirtiness of boxing, it rarely explores it in a meaningful way.
Still, other events depicted on the show are compelling. The first significant boxing competition in the series is the Queensberry vs. Matchroom 5v5 boxing event back in June of 2024. The show pitted five Matchroom Sports boxers against five Queensbury Promotions fighters, with the winning promotional company scoring the biggest purse and bragging rights. The latter distinction was more significant than the former, as the Hearns and Matchroom were facing off against longtime rival Frank Warren. Matchroom and Queensbury have been the top of the British boxing food chain for decades, and there is no love lost between the Hearns and Warren. When Matchroom gets shut out in all five fights, the pain and embarrassment are palpable. One thing you quickly learn about the Hearns, though, is that today’s defeat cannot be allowed to linger, and that there is always another event to turn to.
In that regard, the next major boxing event on the horizon for the Hearns in the series is their greatest boxing success, Anthony Joshua, taking on IBF champion Daniel Dubois in September of 2024. A win by Joshua over Dubois would have seen Joshua become the heavyweight champion for a third time, leading to even more big-money fights in the future. Best laid plans do not always pan out, though, and Joshua gets knocked out in the fifth by Dubois. To add insult to injury, Dubois is managed by Queensbury as well.
As I mentioned before, Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen, refers to the hard nature of the boxing business more than it shows it, but you do catch a hint when Barry and Eddie Hearn discuss Joshua’s future, noting that he’s nearly 35, and talking about the need for new blood in their boxing stable. Eddie Hearn appears to genuinely care for his boxers, and perhaps Joshua more so than any other. However, boxing isn’t just a game to the Hearns; it’s big business, and Joshua, for all that he has accomplished personally, and for the Hearns, is starting to look like old business.
Not long after the dust settles on that defeat, the Matchroom Boxing team takes their charge, Israil Madrimov, into the ring against Terence Crawford. Madrimov puts up a remarkably game effort in losing a close unanimous decision to the now (post-Canelo victory) pound-for-pound boxing champion. Still, a loss is still a loss, and that defeat for Madrimov is followed by another loss at the hands of Vergil Ortiz Jr., a bout that is oddly not included in the series.
It isn’t until Katie Taylor’s second fight against Amanda Serrano that the Matchroom team scores a major win in the series. While Matchroom Sport didn’t promote the fight between Taylor and Serrano, Taylor’s affiliation with Matchroom gives them a stake in the action, much to the chagrin of Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), Jake Paul’s company. It’s fair to say that Eddie Hearn and Jake Paul (along with Paul’s right-hand at MVP, Nakisa Bidarian) can’t stand each other. The gamesmanship between the two camps is both childish and amusing. Hearn dismisses Paul as a real boxer, makes light of the Paul/Mike Tyson co-headliner of the Taylor/Serrano event, and Bidarian temporarily restricts Hearn’s access to his Taylor before the bout. It’s all a case of a few grown men acting like children, but for Hearn, the back and forth is worth it once Taylor wins a closely contested unanimous decision.
The series concludes with Matchroom Sport boxer Conor Benn taking on Chris Eubank Jr. There is significant intrigue surrounding this final bout of the show between the two British fighters. Conor Benn’s father, Nigel, was a two-time world heavyweight champion in the nineties, and Eubank’ father, Chris Eubank Sr., was also a world heavyweight title holder in the nineties, and a fierce rival of Nigel’s. To add even more weight to the matchup, Conor Benn had been out of the ring for two years while appealing a suspension for the use of performance-enhancing drugs. That suspension was overturned by the UK boxing commission on appeal, but during that time, Conor Benn came to the brink of suicide.
Conor Benn vs. Chris Eubank Jr. was a hotly contested fight that had a very contentious preamble. One that saw Eubank Jr. call Eddie Hearn and Frank Smith “scumbags” (by the way, Frank Smith is married to Eubank Jr.’s sister (this promotion was messy on many levels), and hit Conor Benn with an egg in the face at their joint press conference. The two weight classes Conor Benn had to jump to take on Eubank Jr. proved to be too much, and Benn lost to his rival by unanimous decision.
Are Barry & Eddie Hearn ‘The Greatest Showmen’?
What is most interesting about Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen is watching the Hearns lose more than they win but still come out on top. The Hearns’ ability to maneuver, secure, and promote the biggest events in three sports cannot be denied. The outcome for the athletes in their stable is paramount to those shooting pool, tossing darts, or throwing blows, but as much as the Hearns may want their players and fighters to win, it isn’t mandatory for Matchroom to come out on top. The event is more important than the outcome.
At the end of Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen, the family-owned business is seen aligning itself with Turki Alalshikh–a move that has the potential to propel their already burgeoning business into the stratosphere. The only thing that matters is the next deal, and this deceptively affable father/son team has mastered the ability to shake hands with devils and not get too badly singed. Then again, as agreeable as this series may want you to believe they are, there is no mistaking the hint of the shark in the father, or the sudden ability to get nasty by Eddie. Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen may want you to like the Hearns, but when Eddie Hearn is seen talking to Frank Smith while Smith is on his phone, Hearn’s quick trigger appears when he says, “I’m talking to you, put down the f-cking phone.” Smith doesn’t just look up or put the phone away; he apologizes and tosses the phone on the table.
In that moment, you know, the Hearns have singed some hands themselves. They are right where they belong.
Discover more from Fights Around The World
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Pingback: Matchroom Sport＆Riyadhシーズンは、新しいパートナーシップを発表します - nipponese.news - Nipponese