Did AJ/Hearn drop the ball trying to invade USA? Should they have stayed in the UK?

[W1LL]

Hindsight makes geniuses of us all.

What was the thinking behind invading the US for AJ and Hearn? Chasing the big fights? Maximizing earning potential? Becoming undisputed? Fighting in the UK has been a very profitable business for AJ and Matchroom. They could have continued to do that whilst making 10s of millions per fight.

For the opponent, coming to the UK to fight AJ is a much, much taller task than facing him on neutral ground. That partisan UK crowd on home soil really cannot be over-estimated. As it turns out, seems AJ completely bottled it mentally fighting in NYC.

Seems they sacrificed a lot last night. Going forward they probably have no choice but to go abroad to take the big fights. Redemption is going to have to be sought on other fighter's terms. So much leverage for AJ/Hearn went down the drain.

[Grimgash]

My guess is build him into a global brand and market him for increased revenue....but doesn't always pan out how you want.

[JimRaynor]

No, they needed to make a fight in the USA sooner or later, and Ruiz was supposed to have been the tailor made safe opponent for AJ, and he actually was, 6'2 severely overweight and much shorter arms than AJ. This should've been a walk in the park.

[KTFOKING]

This could have happened to him in the UK as well. Bur there are plenty of reports that DAZN pushed for Joshua to fight stateside. Hearn has to satisfy DAZN first and foremost now so this was inevitable. I don't think it was a mistake through. Joshua is already the biggest star in the UK and could have been one of the biggest stars stateside helping his global brand.

[redmish]

They probably done the right thing commercially, unfortunately AJ wasn't up to it.

[scap]

BArry and Eddie were sitting back proud as could ****in be-what a night they probably told themselves a few times ...then u could see it on Eddies face as he realized that he invested everything in Frank Bruno.

[W1LL]

BArry and Eddie were sitting back proud as could ****in be-what a night they probably told themselves a few times ...then u could see it on Eddies face as he realized that he invested everything in Frank Bruno.

Lmao! That pre-fight rendition of "Sweet Caroline", with Derick Chisora leading the chorus, was epic doe.

[deathofaclown]

You can never fault anyone for being ambitious.

It was always going to crash down one day because AJ isn’t anything special but nobody thought it would be against Ruiz.

[Motorcity Cobra]

Y'all know I'm not a Hearn fan but anybody who says he shouldn't have tried it is a loser in life and has never tried to be great. Chances make champions.

[Amber_TKO]

I don't think AJ ever wanted to fight in the US, he was happy selling out stadiums in the UK. It was Eddie Hearn who wanted him to be the face of his Matchroom USA venture. His cash cow ain't so valuable anymore but I don't think it's a disaster for Matchroom, they're building a nice roster of fighters over here.

The problem for Joshua is that he just ain't as special as he was being hyped up to be. He was going to be found out eventually whether that was in the US or the UK.