A boxing gym – Source: Unsplash
The email arrived through a lawyer. Not a call. Not a conversation. A solicitor’s letter, clinical and cold, informing Eddie Hearn that the fighter he’d shielded through many challenges had signed with rival Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing on a reported $15m one-fight deal.
Matchroom’s head honcho told iFL TV he was “devastated, shocked”—admitted he’d “got the character wrong”. He’d backed Conor Benn when literally nobody else would touch him. Took the loyalty for granted. Made the call. Benn didn’t even pick up.
Conor Benn’s Next Fight Announced
White ushered his newest signing onto Tyson Fury’s upcoming homecoming card, taking place live on Netflix on April 12th at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London. Regis Prograis is the opponent, a former unified light-welterweight champion with two defeats in his last three contests, and the bookies expect Benn to inflict a third in four next month.
The latest odds from the popular Sportaza online gambling site make the 29-year-old Brit a mighty 1/12 betting favorite to get the win, with his opponent way out at 8/1. It certainly seems like a strange way for Dana and Zuffa to spend $15m.
Hearn’s counter-punch came within two weeks. Tom Aspinall—undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, the most dominant combat sports figure in Britain today—inked a management deal with Matchroom. Not promotional control, mind you; Aspinall’s UFC contract stays intact. But the symbolism was deafening. You raid my welterweight? I’ll manage your biggest star. Aspinall even told the BBC that Benn’s defection “convinced” him to team with Hearn—which tells you everything about whose side the locker room really occupies. Boxing’s civil war just got a new front line.
So Matchroom bleeds, but it doesn’t fold. The stable remains loaded with elite talent across all weight classes, and Hearn—wounded but dangerous—still holds the keys. But who are his biggest stars following Benn’s defection? Let’s take a look.
Anthony Joshua
A 2012 Olympic gold medal. Two-time unified heavyweight champion of the world. Wembley, Tottenham Hotspur, and the Millennium Stadiums all sold out on his name alone, multiple times over. And then September 2024—Daniel Dubois, fourth round, lights out—reigniting every glass chin whisper that the first Ruiz collapse had planted. The elbow surgery that followed kept him inactive, while a circus opposite the brash Jake Paul presented the perfect way to refamiliarize himself with the bright lights and collect a big fat bag of cash in the process.
Four knockdowns, sixth-round stoppage. The destroyer was still in there, dormant but not dead. Hearn practically whispered it’s “probably” his final year in the sport—and that admission, stripped of promotional spin, tells you where the clock stands. The good news? Joshua-Fury is all but signed for 2026. The all-British white whale, a decade in the making, is finally nearing completion, pending AJ’s desire to get back in the ring after that fatal car crash he was a part of in Nigeria.
Should Joshua return to the ring, the first thing he needs is a big-time win. Fury needs one too. The fans need closure. But another KO loss—to Fury, or a tune-up gone wrong—ends this era with cruel abruptness. No commercial asset in boxing’s current landscape approaches him for draw weight. Post-Benn, he anchors Matchroom’s entire commercial proposition. The desperate beauty of a fighter betting everything on one last Wembley roar.
Dmitry Bivol
The 2022 masterclass over Canelo Álvarez is still pound-for-pound the finest performance in recent boxing history—a surgical dismantling of boxing’s consensus pound-for-pound king, executed with the cold efficiency of a man solving a problem nobody else could.
Then came the Artur Beterbiev saga. Razor-thin majority decision loss in October 2024. Rematch revenge—majority decision, undisputed light heavyweight gold—February 2025. Back surgery sidelined him through the rest of the year. His manager confirmed no tune-up fights; straight to the biggest available opponent, maximum leverage. That opponent? Canelo—if the Mexican star stops manufacturing excuses and signs the paperwork. Let’s face it, he needs to if he is to reclaim some honor after that lopsided Terence Crawford defeat.
Bivol’s camp wants it; they’ve floated early 2026 openly. The question is whether DAZN and PBC can coexist long enough to split the broadcast rights without either side walking. Bivol-Canelo II revives that streaming war in spectacular fashion.
Is Bivol the uncrowned king of pound-for-pound boxing? His résumé demands the argument. Undisputed at 175. Beterbiev beaten twice. Canelo scalped once. The cruiserweight jump against Zuffa’s Opetaia floats as genuine lunacy—or genius. Post-Benn, he’s Matchroom’s technical crown jewel, marketability catching up to mastery.
Shakur Stevenson
July 2025—William Zepeda, WBC lightweight, neutralized completely. January 2026 at Madison Square Garden—Teofimo Lopez, former undisputed lightweight champion, beaten cleanly for WBO super lightweight gold. Shakur Stevenson is 28, operating at the absolute peak of his considerable powers and building a legacy that engagement critics will acknowledge in retrospect, even if they can’t stomach it in real time.
Many wonder if Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis – another big-name Matchroom fighter – will ever get the respect he deserves. Flip that question toward Stevenson, and it lands harder. Olympic silver, Rio 2016. Two-weight champion. And still, he gets the handwave from fans who mistake entertainment for excellence.
The Philly shell, the defensive wizardry, the hand speed that makes opponents miss and miss clean—trainers study this kid the way they study Ray Leonard tape. Devin Haney is the mega-fight that makes Stevenson a household name beyond the hardcore. Richardson Hitchins, his own stablemate, is the internal matchmaking timebomb Hearn can’t defuse forever.
Stevenson fills the young-gun void Benn vacated—undefeated, technically flawless, the future face of American boxing. And perhaps most importantly, at least for Hearn, he’s signed to Matchroom.