Rumor: Keith Thurman To Sign With Eddie Hearn

You, like me, maybe expected that by now, a horde of stampeding pugilists with hands out, looking to fatten wallets, would have made their outreach to Eddie Hearn, and gotten aboard Hearns' DAZN/Perform train.

Your recall what Eddie said May 11, when he had the splashy and lux NYC shin-dig to tout his stream deal?

“I needed a partner that was gonna give me a huge amount of dates — 16 we’ve got, which is fantastic — as much money as possible, where we’ve got bigger budgets than HBO and Showtime put together, annually. So I shouldn’t really fail,” Hearn told us.

“Now the next job is to sign an incredible stable of fighters and to make sure that we produce a schedule for our broadcast partners that is second to none. Really a platform built by the fan for the fans — not coming on air at 10 o’clock to work around a movie — coming on air when we wanna come on air, showing all the undercard, shoulder programming, pre-fight programming, and really try and make a big dent in the market.”

So, two days ago we heard from Adrien Broner that AB turned down a three fight Hearn/DAZN offer; the Cincy hitter pushed buttons when he called the offer slave's wages, knowing that it was nothing such, and that media would latch on to the inflammatory tone, as they had when Floyd Mayweather had used the term. But no, there's been no stampede, or if there has, it's been a quiet one, one that hasn't seen the stampeders being blown away by the Eddie offer to the point that they've signed on that dotted line and proclaimed immediate allegiance. It is possible that Hearn might be finding it harder to get talent than he might have thought, that loyalty is still a thing, and fighters are beholden to Uncle Al, and those that aren't are on board the Top Rank and Golden Boy wagon. Or, he might be working' it steady and announcements may soon be forthcoming.

Hey, I heard today from the grapevine that maybe Keith Thurman was signing with Hearn. What about it, any truth to that? I talked to someone who knows of Thurman, and they said he's been traveling, has been having a fine time in Japan, with his newly betrothed, and he's been doing some pre-training there, and they weren't informed of any new promotional arrangement he's made.

So…We wait, and see how some of these chips fall. Or don't…