Hearn on Arum: "The Top Rank Guys Were Surprised"

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn says the behavior of Top Rank's Bob Arum after the Jack Catterall (29-1, 13 KOs) and Josh Taylor (19-2, 13 KOs) fight surprised even members of the Top Rank team.

"Bob is 90 years old (actually, 92), he doesn’t always act accordingly. I think it was a pretty close fight, I didn’t even know Bob was in the ring. He almost hanged himself during it. It was a somewhat strange reaction to say he wouldn't bring a fighter to Britain.

It was one of those fights where some scorecards might be a bit wide. Arum had a somewhat killer reaction to the judges' abilities and integrity.

Even the guys from Top Rank were a bit embarrassed by this, but he's 94 years old, you can't expect him to be in his right mind all the time. I'm just not sure that reaction was a good one," Hearn said.

The judges awarded the victory to Catterall: twice 117-111 and 116-113. After the fight, Arum stated that Taylor should have won and that he wouldn't advise any American fighter to come to the UK because of the judges.