HEARN
Edward

• 1. Career

Edward John Hearn is a British sports promoter and the chairman of Matchroom Sport and Professional Darts Corporation.

Hearn has promoted many world champion boxers through Matchroom, including Anthony Joshua, Canelo Álvarez, Gennady Golovkin, Vasyl Lomachenko, Katie Taylor and many others. He is the son of promoter Barry Hearn, the founder of Matchroom Sport.

Career

In 2010, Hearn met boxer Audley Harrison at a poker game and agreed to help him rebuild his career, subsequently getting Harrison a fight with heavyweight champion David Haye for his WBA title, which began his career and establishment of Matchroom Boxing.

In 2013, Hearn signed a promotional agreement with Anthony Joshua, one year after his gold medal win at the London 2012 Olympics. He has promoted all of Joshua's fights since, including multiple world champion fights.

In 2014, Hearn promoted Carl Froch vs. George Groves II in 2014 at Wembley Stadium with 80,000 fans in attendance.

In 2015, Hearn signed an exclusive televised boxing deal with UK broadcaster Sky Sports to broadcast up to 20 shows a year. The deal was in place for six years and lasted until 2021.

In 2017, Hearn promoted Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko which took place at Wembley Stadium with 90,000 fans in attendance.

In May 2018, Hearn revealed boxing's first-ever $1 billion boxing deal (£750 million) as Matchroom and streaming service DAZN signed an agreement to stream shows across the United States. At the heart of the deal, Hearn and Matchroom Boxing would stage 16 shows in America, which would be streamed exclusively on DAZN in the U.S., while 16 of his UK shows will also be shown on the platform.

In 2019, Hearn agreed a deal to promote a professional boxing match between YouTube personalities KSI and Logan Paul, which took place on 9 November 2019 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. This match was heavily criticised by boxing fans across the globe; they claimed KSI and Paul were not suitable to be promoted by Hearn, due to their lack of experience. Referring to their first amateur fight which Hearn had previously declined to promote, he described it as "a really good fight and I told myself I'm doing the rematch."

In the same year, Hearn came under criticism for staging Andy Ruiz Jr. vs. Anthony Joshua II in Saudi Arabia, due to the country's poor human rights record. He defended the decision by stating that Saudi Arabia wanted to improve its image and that his job "is to provide the best opportunities for our fighters."

In 2019, Hearn launched a BBC Radio 5 Live podcast called 'No Passion, No Point' interviewing a number of sports professionals including Andrew Flintoff, Wayne Rooney and Tyson Fury.

In April 2021, Hearn was appointed Chairman of the Matchroom Group after Hearn's father, Barry Hearn, stepped aside from the role of chairman to become president of the group in an advisory role.

On 8 May 2021, Hearn promoted Canelo Álvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders in front of 73,126 fans at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, which broke the all-time attendance record for an indoor boxing event in the United States. Matchroom subsequently agreed a further two-fight promotional deal with Canelo Álvarez in a deal worth $85 million. Later that same month, Hearn became involved in a war of words with rival promoters Bob Arum of Top Rank, and Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions, over the failure of a deal coming to fruition for a proposed Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua fight, accusing them of making "absolutely zero attempt to try and save the Anthony Joshua fight".

On 3 June 2021, Hearn announced that he had signed a five-year deal that meant he would be taking his entire stable of Matchroom fighters to streaming service DAZN, which ended Matchroom's previous partnership with Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland. As part of the deal, all Matchroom events will be shown exclusively on DAZN worldwide, and "at least 16 Matchroom UK fights will be annually available exclusively to DAZN subscribers in the UK and Ireland for the first time, from July 2021 onwards".

In September 2021, Hearn and Anthony Joshua announced a new promotional deal to last until the end of the boxer's career.

In April 2022, Hearn co-promoted the Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano fight at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the first women's fight to headline the venue.

In 2024, Hearn participated in the Queensberry vs. Matchroom 5v5 event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a distinctive boxing competition against fellow promoter Frank Warren. Each promoter selected five fighters, with the scoring system awarding two points for a knockout, one point for a decision win, and double points for victories by team captains. Despite Hearn's strategic efforts, his team was decisively defeated, losing all matches and ending with a 10-0 loss against Warren's team. In 2025 he promoted Conor Benn in his match against Chris Eubank Jr.