Exclusive:
He is one of the most influential people in modern-day sport, but Eddie Hearn realised he had to change his life to save himself from an early grave
Eddie Hearn’s boxing globe-trotting around Las Vegas, Mexico and Saudi Arabia saw him forget to work on one of the things he loves most – himself.
That was the admission of the Matchroom chairman, 45, who has become one of the most powerful and famous figures in sport, let alone combat sports. Hearn’s world has not stopped spinning since he first promoted Audley Harrison in 2010 after meeting the ex-Olympic gold medallist at a poker event.
And Hearn has not stopped moving since. At times, his only opportunities to wind down are on the many long-haul flights and hotel stays he has to take every week. It was in those scenarios where his guard dropped and fast food fixes, lavish meals and nights out presented themselves.
Before he knew it, Hearn, who stands at a towering 6ft 5in, was almost 20 stone. His laser-precision focus on finding the next boxing star, leading the next mega fight, and negotiating the next monumental television deal saw him negate his health and fitness. Reality eventually hit him when he saw photographs of himself and did not like what he saw. He soon realised that his world could be abruptly ended if he did not make a huge change.
In 18 months, Hearn lost more than two-and-a-half stone. “I look back on pictures of me at press conferences and I see a different person,” Hearn said in an exclusive interview with Mirror Fighting while promoting Johnny Fisher’s upcoming bout with Alen Babic. “It was my face. All my weight would be in my face.
“When you’re travelling all the time and you’re going out drinking and you’re not sleeping, you just look more and more s***. You’ll put a nice suit on and you think, ‘F*** me that’s tight’ and you just don’t feel good. When I do my podcast, we talk about success. Like, success is completely individualistic to you personally, right?
“So success to me used to be doing a huge show and making a fortune. Or maybe try and buy myself a nice car or get a house looking like this. Now it’s actually how I feel when I wake up. That’s success. If I feel good that means I feel like I’m having success. The health thing just changed everything.
“Also, I was thinking, ‘We’re having more shows than ever, the business is moving at a faster pace than ever, got so much to do, I will die. My dad had a heart attack at 48, his dad died at 44, and his dad died at 45 all from heart disease. I’m 6ft 5in and walking around, I was f***ing 19-and-a-half stone. So it’s like, ‘There is no way you can work at this pace and survive, so you’ve got to do something about it.'”
Self-care and fitness have almost become non-negotiable at Matchroom. Hearn brought on a full-time personal trainer at his HQ in Brentwood, Essex, who accompanies him to boxing bouts around the world and trains his employees.
Reporters and media personnel who have attended a Matchroom fight weekend may also be shocked to find out there is a 5km run led by Hearn and his team. He also has his own guest column with Men’s Health magazine, where he chronicled his weight-loss journey. As well as mere self-preservation and weight loss, Hearn had another motive for starting his life-changing journey.
“What Men’s Health said to me was, ‘What do you most want to get out of this?” Hearn added. “I said, ‘I want to put on a pair of pants or put on my swimming trunks, look in the mirror and go f***ing hell I look all right, you do, boy’. I think if you look in the mirror and you like what you see, it changes your mood and losing that weight, you know I’ve still got a long way to go, really makes a difference.
“But I’m really enjoying it and learning more and more about it. I find it all quite fascinating. I’ve battled my weight, I’m still battling it now, probably since I was 14 or 15. I had an injury. I used to play a lot of sports and I had a stress fracture in my foot. I didn’t play sport for six months and I put on a load of weight.
“I used to joke with my mate, saying ‘It’s a constant battle just to stay fat’. But at the time, when I was overweight and unhealthy, to me, I looked unbelievable because I’ve got a big ego. It’s only when I look back at the photos now, I go ‘F***ing hell, oh my God.'”
Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn presents Fisher-Babic, live on DAZN, this Saturday at the Copper Box
