Hopeless Flintoff is fighting only for money, says Hearn
FIGHT promoter Eddie Hearn has dismissed Andrew Flintoff’s decision to delve into heavyweight boxing as a money-making exercise and believes him to lack the necessary talent and discipline needed to become a success.
The former England cricket captain is to appear in the reality television series The Gloves Are Off and make his professional boxing debut at the Manchester Arena on 30 November, but Hearn has questioned both his motivation and technical ability in the ring.
“I know Freddie [Flintoff],” Hearn told City A.M. “He’s a nice bloke, but I don’t know the motives to it really, it’s just a money-making exercise. I can’t imagine he’s thinking this is going to be a career, but it’s not a sport you just play at. You don’t just start up, especially at heavyweight.
“I’m not being funny, I’ve seen him on the pads – he’s not going to be a decent fighter. If he went down the gym and they said, ‘wow, you’ve got some serious talent’, I could perhaps understand him doing it, but they wouldn’t have said that.”
Hearn, who tomorrow promotes the light heavyweight fight between world-title challengers Tony Bellew and Edison Miranda at Alexandra Palace, also insisted that there is no chance of Carl Froch ever fighting Wales’s Nathan Cleverly.