With this weekend’s junior middleweight title fight between Terence Crawford and Israil Madrimov set to take place on Saturday, there’s nothing quite like a little pre-fight banter to get the juices flowing. Madrimov himself isn’t much for the trash talk, but his promoter Eddie Hearn didn’t mind standing in his place to get into a bit of jawing match with Crawford during a promotional photo op.
“You’re very nervous today,” Hearn would say to Crawford. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, your energy’s all off. I’m worried about you on Saturday. I don’t think you’re taking this fight right.”
Crawford, for his part, said he wasn’t buying into any of Hearn’s mind games.
“I’m 3-0 against you, son,” Crawford said.
That kicked off a bit of a back-and-forth about Crawford’s lightweight title win over Ricky Burns, who Crawford claims is the best champion Hearn has ever had. Hearn didn’t seem to agree to that point so much, but he does remember the event.
“You still owe me 700 pounds for the hotel bill in Scotland,” Hearn recalled.
Crawford insisted that he never actually ran up any charges during his hotel stay for that fight, but did goad Hearn if he was interested in recouping.
“And I got your money in my pocket. Take it!” Crawford dared Hearn. “You said I owed you. Take it.”
Needless to say, Hearn wasn’t quite intent on taking that leap but it didn’t stop the pair from having a smirk at one another as they look forward to Saturday’s main event.