{"id":674228,"date":"2026-01-04T23:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T23:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/674228\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T23:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T23:12:17","slug":"matchroom-ready-to-pay-john-hedges-big-money-for-clash-with-rising-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/674228\/","title":{"rendered":"Matchroom Ready To Pay John Hedges &#8216;Big Money&#8217; For Clash With Rising Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Matchroom are preparing a &#8216;big money&#8217; offer for English cruiserweight champion <a class=\"underline hover:text-redColor\" href=\"https:\/\/ringmagazine.com\/en\/fighters\/john-hedges-3313835\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Hedges<\/a> to face rising star <a class=\"underline hover:text-redColor\" href=\"https:\/\/ringmagazine.com\/en\/fighters\/pat-brown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pat Brown<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Undefeated southpaw Hedges (12-0, 3 KOs) has struggled for activity over the past three years, with just five outings since October 2022.<\/p>\n<p>However, the 23-year-old registered the biggest win of his career on December 17 when <a class=\"underline hover:text-redColor\" href=\"https:\/\/ringmagazine.com\/en\/news\/john-hedges-beats-ellis-zorro-retain-english-cruiserweight-title\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">outpointing longtime contender Ellis Zorro over 10 rounds in London<\/a>.<br \/>Hedges had hoped the victory would catapult him towards a shot at the British cruiserweight title held by <a class=\"underline hover:text-redColor\" href=\"https:\/\/ringmagazine.com\/en\/fighters\/viddal-riley-1693531\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Viddal Riley<\/a>, but now his long-term promoter Eddie Hearn is ready to deliver him a different opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>The Matchroom boss, who has promoted 6ft 6in Hedges since his debut back in 2020, is hoping to tempt him into a fight with 2024 Olympian Brown, who is now five fights and five inside-distance victories into his professional career.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Hedges suggested he would only consider the clash if it made financial sense and Hearn has since said that he&#8217;s ready to pay him what he deserves.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For me that&#8217;s the fight,&#8221; Hearn told <a class=\"underline hover:text-redColor\" href=\"https:\/\/ringmagazine.com\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Ring<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a dangerous fight for both, Hedges is a very tricky, tough fighter to beat. The last fight against Zorro was a bit of a stinker because they&#8217;re both a little bit negative at times. <\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fight with Pat Brown is a great fight but I&#8217;m with John Hedges on it that he needs to get well paid because it&#8217;s a dangerous fight. Hedges will believe he can win that fight, has the experience and the awkwardness to cause Pat a lot of problems. But Pat is very dangerous, has had a handful of fights and is a big name. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If I&#8217;m John Hedges, I&#8217;m saying pay me the money and I&#8217;ll take the fight. He&#8217;s got to be realistic but it&#8217;s got to be big money and we will make an offer. If it&#8217;s right, he will take it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matchroom are preparing a &#8216;big money&#8217; offer for English cruiserweight champion John Hedges to face rising star Pat&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,10188,10181,10187,10186,10179,4496,10182,10183,10184,10185,10180,10193,10192,10175,10173,10174,10190,10176,10172,10194,10189,79,10191,10171,10178,16,15,10177],"class_list":{"0":"post-674228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-results","18":"tag-boxing-schedule","19":"tag-boxing-videos","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115839365505694736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}