Unconfirmed sources have indicated that Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn is expanding his boxing operation out to Monaco with a show lined up in the Principality in either October or November.
Liverpool’s Callum Smith has been mentioned as a possible name for the inaugural show, which is rumoured to be November 12. However, he has a mandatory British Super middleweight title defence against Luke Blackledge on his plate as well as a date on Hearn’s October 15 bill in Liverpool, which is headlined by Tony Bellew’s maiden defence of his WBC cruiserweight title against America’s BJ Flores.
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Hearn won the purse bid for Smith-Blackledge. The BBBoC stated that it ‘will take place on a date and at a venue as yet to be advised’ when confirming the successful bid yet it has not been officially confirmed for October.
Monaco is no stranger to big time boxing, Rodney Berman used to put shows together there on a regular basis and the Salle des Étoiles regularly hosted boxing shows until they ground to a halt this year.
Ruslan Provodnikov was the last fighter to headline at the venue; he beat Jesus Alvarez Rodriguez in four last November. Gennady Golovkin has also fought there, beating Nobuhiro Ishida, Osumanu Adama and Martin Murray (KO 3, KO 7 and TKO 11 respectively) in middleweight title defences.
Sheffield-based promoter Dennis Hobson teamed up with Philippe Fondu for a show in 2006. Matthew Hatton (W RTD 6 over Aliaksandr Abramenka) and Femi Fehintola (W TKO 2 over Ivo Golakov) appeared on that one and both spoke glowingly about the experience of boxing in Monaco. If Hearn does make the move a slew of British fighters may benefit from the trip in coming years.
Hearn was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.
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