Matchroom Boxing head Eddie Hearn continues to catch the ire of rival promoter Leonard Ellerbe. 

Earlier this month, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions called the British promoter a “clown” and a “piece of sh–” on Twitter.  

On Tuesday, Ellerbe further went in on Hearn while he was promoting Gervonta Davis’ upcoming fight against Rolando Romero on Showtime pay-per-view, which is set to take place May 28 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

While Ellerbe was discussing the quality of opponents Davis is facing, he used the discussion as a launching pad to further go in on Hearn.

“There’s been a lot of noise ‘you ain’t fought this guy, you ain’t fought this guy’ – who the f— are we talking about?! Fought who?! I don’t see no King Kongs out there,” Ellerbe told Sean Zittel of Fight Hype. “One says ’Oh, Teo Lopez’ – duh, do ya’ll know how this f—in’ game works? There’s no f—in’ way that Bob Arum is gonna put his kid in there with a guy that. Bob knows this sh– but he has two excellent matchmakers who know how this sh– would go in the ring. They know no Teo Lopez can beat Tank Davis.

“So what, you just gonna hand the titles over to Mayweather Promotions and PBC? It’s like, no, it doesn’t work like that. Bob’s gonna make the fight with the guys that he has and build his guy that way. You not just gonna jump into a fight with a guy – especially with a guy who’s never, ever headlined a show. Ain’t sold one f—in’ ticket, but Bob’s gonna put him in with that? Does that even make any sense?!

“Then you fast forward to [Devin] Haney. I know Devin very well, a tremendous fighter, he grew up in this gym. Excellent fighter. He signed with a promoter who don’t know what the f— he’s doing, he’s f—ed off over a billion dollars and still hasn’t built one f—in’ star in the United States. I applaud Bill [Haney], a very smart guy. And I applaud Devin. They signed with a guy, they made a bunch of f—in’ money, and that’s what they are supposed to do! But, again, it’s like ain’t no slight on them, but when you talking about Tank Davis I gotta pay you what you weigh.

“And you can just read in between the lines with that. It had nothing to do with Devin not being a tremendous fighter, but as far as being a draw, it’s self-explanatory. So you can’t make a fight like that.”

Haney left Hearn’s nest to sign a multi-fight deal with DiBella Entertainment and Top Rank in order to fight George Kambosos Jr. in an undisputed lightweight bout on June 4. 

Hearn was trying to stage the bout on DAZN but his efforts ultimately proved to be futile, and now the fight will be presented by ESPN.

Haney fought six times under Hearn’s Matchroom USA banner from 2019 to 2021 on DAZN, scoring unanimous decision wins against the likes of Joseph Diaz, Jorge Linares, and Yuriorkis Gamboa, and earning a WBC title along the way.

In recent weeks, soon after Davis vocalized displeasure about how his career was being handled by Mayweather, Hearn threw his name in the hat and expressed intent to sign Davis should the knockout artist end up becoming a free agent. 

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com.