Eddie Hearn has been mocked and branded a "casual" by legendary former world champion Oscar De La Hoya for putting Anthony Joshua on his all-time heavyweight list.
The multiple-division champion has never been a fan of Hearn's, and joked that he was a "casual" fan after listing Joshua among legends of the heavyweight division. After jokingly suggesting the Brit was No.1, he re-evaluated and Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Sonny Liston, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe and George Foreman made up his top eight.
And he then suggested that one of Joshua, Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk, this generation's great heavyweights, might crack the list assuming they all fight each other. Fury is claiming to be retired, meaning that he likely wouldn't face either, while Joshua's career as a top heavyweight may be over if he loses his immediate rematch with Usyk.
De La Hoya wasn't the only one confused about Hearn's list, which also omitted Larry Holmes, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, and Jack Dempsey. One fan wrote: "Not having Larry Holmes on here is actually indefensible".
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Another added to the discussion, responding by saying "Joe Louis not being on there is the real omission on the list that makes this thing laughable," while more said that "none of the last 3 are close to top 10 all time".
De La Hoya and Hearn have never had a great relationship, and it was further soured when Canelo Alvarez, Golden Boy Promotions' biggest name, opted to leave for Matchroom Boxing. While the Mexican did take a brief detour to Showtime in order to secure the undisputed super-middleweight titles, he has declared his loyalty to Hearn, even after losing to Dmitry Bivol.
After the legendary fighter-turned-promoter claimed that Hearn "doesn't know the fight game", the Brit blasted his rival as jealous. “Why do you want to criticise a guy for trying to be great?" The Brit asked on The MMA Hour.
"Of course, out of jealousy and the fact that they fell out, there’s a lot of that. You’re basically saying, ‘you shouldn’t have taken that fight because it was too difficult.’ What sort of sport do we live in where we’re criticising fighters for taking a big challenge?"
De La Hoya had said on the same programme that he blamed Hearn for Alvarez's loss to Bivol, which has hurt his star-power and standing as a pound-for-pound great. The Mexican had lost just once, to Floyd Mayweather, during his career, but was comfortably beaten in his last outing.
“It was a lose-lose situation,” De La Hoya opined. “Nobody knew Bivol whatsoever. I would have promoted Bivol to get a bigger name, because nobody knew who he was before he fought Canelo. He was irrelevant. He was nobody.
"We were actually going to face him against [Gilberto] Zurdo Ramirez, but Canelo has a promoter now who doesn’t come from the boxing world. He doesn’t know the fight game, and he got Canelo beat. It was the wrong style. Las Vegas had no buzz whatsoever.
“I was actually there, sitting ringside, supporting Canelo. Canelo is the superstar of the game right now [and] Eddie Hearn didn’t do no justice to Canelo when he faced him against Bivol.”
