Betfred not calling for the bell on Matchroom

Two heavyweights will join forces once again as we're delighted to announce that we've extended our partnership with Matchroom Boxing for another 12 months.

Matchroom boasts some of the best and most accomplished boxers from across the world, including the likes of Katie Taylor, Conor Benn and Anthony Joshua.

We recently caught up with Eddie Hearn, chairman of Matchroom Sport, and he shared his thoughts on the new deal with Betfred.

“Yeah, it’s massive for us. Across our different sports, we work with a lot of betting partners, and you’re all our friends, but we’ve got a special relationship with Fred.

“My dad goes back with him for decades, and obviously he’s been a huge supporter of the snooker, boxing – every sport we’ve ever been in

“We don’t want to go anywhere else – you’re our family for boxing, and we love everything we do with Betfred.

“We’re very passionate about the partnership, and with the direction we’re going in with boxing, this is a massive few years coming up, and we’re delighted to be doing it with Betfred.

“When I talk to Fred, I just hear a Northern version of my old man – they’re the same kind of people! They came from nothing and built successful businesses, but love to re-invest back into the community.

“We’re two family businesses that have been built into global powerhouses but have remained true and loyal to our roots in the community as well”.

Hearn was recently spotted enjoying the tennis at Wimbledon with Anthony Joshua, so we asked him the question on everybody’s lips at the moment – when is he fighting Tyson Fury?

“Obviously, that’s out of our control, [Fury] likes to do some strange things – he’s now saying he’s going to fight [Oleksandr] Usyk, he’s already lost to him twice.

“The fight that everyone wants to see is AJ against Fury but that’s down to Tyson Fury – we’re ready to go.

Joshua has been out of action since suffering a devastating knockout defeat to Daniel Dubois last September.

During his break, the 35-year-old underwent elbow surgery, which will keep him out of high-intensity training for a few more weeks.

However, Hearn revealed when AJ plans to return to the ring:

“AJ will return in November/December, he’ll fight a top-15 guy. Hopefully, he’ll come back with an impressive win and move into those Tyson Fury fights in 2026.

“We’ve not spoken to the Fury camp, but we’ve got open lines of communication with Frank Warren, Spencer Brown and those guys.

“AJ said yesterday ‘I can’t do anything about it; I want to fight Fury – I’m ready. If he doesn’t want to fight me, there’s nothing I can do.

“I know Tyson’s not scared of AJ, he just likes to tease you a little bit, but my opinion the teasing is done. Let’s make the fight.

“As long as they both come back and win, I would be shocked if we don’t get that fight in 2026.

“We’re ready, we’ll sign now, we’ll agree now – over to Mr Fury. We’ll see what happens.”

The Betfred and Matchroom partnership doesn't stop at boxing, as we look forward to our seventh successful year sponsoring the Betfred World Matchplay Darts. The action gets underway in Blackpool next week, running from Saturday, July 19 - Sunday, July 27 at the Winter Gardens.

You can find all our latest Boxing Odds over on Betfred.com