By Shaun Brown
Eddie Hearn has confirmed to BoxingScene that Matchroom Boxing are in talks about bringing over Floridian Richard Abril to the UK to fight Gavin Rees for the vacant WBA lightweight title later in the year. “Abril is someone we’re talking to and we’re looking to make that happen, but nothing will be announced this week,” said Hearn during a recent conversation.
With his stable of fighters ever growing and flourishing at the moment, the Londoner is also close to sealing a world title shot for his current European middleweight champion Grzegorz Proksa - against WBA "regular" champion Gennady Golovkin on August 25 or September 1.
“Proksa was due to be fighting [Darren] Barker on September 8, but we’re now in deep negotiations with the Golovkin camp to take that fight [for the WBA title] next month after we were approached by them,” Hearn confirmed.
“Barker really fancied fighting Proksa due to Proksa's last two performances, which haven’t been that great. So now we’ll be looking at getting an international opponent in for Barker.”
What of a rumoured England v Scotland clash between Barker and Craig McEwan? “I don’t think that fight will come off just now,” said Hearn. “We’ve been talking to his [McEwan's] trainer Billy Nelson and we’re looking to do something with them, but not just now. After Barker’s fight in September we’ll be looking at [Matthew] Macklin, [Martin] Murray or [Craig] McEwan in November for him.”
Matchroom Boxing will also hold a press conference on Thursday in Belfast to announce the next opponent for Carl Frampton as part of a bumper Irish show featuring Paul McCloskey and Martin Lindsay at the city’s Odyssey Arena on September 22.
Twitter @shaun_brown