'It takes the absolute piss' - Croke Park costs left bad taste, says Eddie Hearn

Katie Taylor will fight in Dublin in May, but not at GAA HQ. 

Katie Taylor and Eddie Hearn at the Mansion House in Dublin on Monday. Picture: INPHO/Gary Carr

Eddie Hearn is insisting that a Katie Taylor fight in Croke Park can still happen, but the Matchroom promoter has doubled down on his stance that unreasonable costs input paid to the original planned bout at the GAA’s flagship stadium.

The intention was that Taylor, who will now make her long-awaited Dublin homecoming against Chantelle Cameron at the 3 Arena on May 20th, would fight Amanda Serrano on Jones' Road in a repeat of their New York classic, but the proposal fell through in a dispute over numbers.

Hearn has consistently claimed that the costs concerned for a Croker bill would have been three times that needed to put on a similar show at Wembley. Croke Park chiefs have stated that security costs were the main source of difficulty.

“To be honest with you, it takes the absolute piss,” said Hearn in Dublin. “For a stadium… We have done national stadiums, we have done 90,000, 80,000. Numbers are numbers and for three times the cost of running a show there it just left a little bit of bad taste.

“But that is our problem, not Katie’s problem. She wanted to fight at Croke Park and we will work to make that happen but what I am not prepared to do is be involved in a fight of that magnitude, with a huge amount of risk and work, for nothing for our family business.” 

Matchroom’s annual profits breach double figures but Hearn took umbrage with the suggestion that they were not sufficiently financially committed in terms of making up any shortfall on the Croke Park venture.

He stated flat out that he was not prepared to put together a fight of that magnitude, after the investment made in Taylor to date, in the hope that they would break even on a show that may not sell out. Business doesn’t work like that, he said.

The 3Arena will cater for somewhere between 8-9,000 people on the night and Hearn predicted that tickets that will be made available as of next week will range from the very accessible to the expensive.

“We are unfortunately leaving money behind going to this arena because it holds 8,000 versus 70,000 at Croke. There was other options outside, but there is obviously a rugby match that weekend as well.

“It has worked out well. I would honestly like to say that this is a one-off but I don’t think it’s the last time that we will see Katie Taylor fight in Ireland, for sure.” 

Hearn also clarified that Conor McGregor’s possible involvement in the fight would be restricted to sponsorship by one of his brands and that the high-profile but divisive UFC star would not be involved in selling the event.

“It’s not the Conor McGregor show,” Hearn explained. “He reached out to help in any way way and if he is to support the event commercially, fantastic, but it’s obviously the Katie Taylor show.”