By Keith Idec

Lou DiBella is busy promoting the “Showtime Championship Boxing” 154-pound title tripleheader Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

The veteran promoter still couldn’t help but notice that British promoter Eddie Hearn has been taking not-so-subtle shots at him since Hearn announced Matchroom Boxing USA signed Brooklyn’s Daniel Jacobs. DiBella didn’t hold back when contacted by BoxingScene.com.

“A long time ago, Golden Boy was gonna come into New York and take it over, and they were gonna do it from East L.A.,” DiBella said, referring to Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. “And it didn’t work out so well. I’m not denigrating them as promoters, but they certainly couldn’t do it in New York. And if Eddie thinks that a rich, British prep school kid, who’s out of touch with regular people, is somehow going to change the paradigm of boxing in New York, then he’s wrong.”

England’s Hearn – whose company, Matchroom Boxing, has had considerable success in the United Kingdom in recent years – told BoxingScene.com last Tuesday that other fighters seeking promoters and HBO exposure have been calling him nonstop since the Jacobs deal was announced.

“I doubt that Eddie’s getting nonstop calls from major stars in the U.S.,” DiBella said. “They can take a good look at how Kell Brook was promoted. Promotion is more than just publicity. Was Kell Brook’s career or well-being helped by being served up to a bigger, stronger Golovkin? Or being thrown in with a monster like Errol Spence after recovering from surgery and the injuries suffered at the hands of a man so much stronger? I hear Brook didn’t make the money he expected from those two grueling fights.

“Maybe U.S. fighters will also recognize that Eddie would be unlikely to ever win a purse bid to protect their interests. It seems like the only four-letter word beginning with ‘r’ that he understands is rich, not risk. It’s also possible that these American fighters will search on YouTube for Eddie’s video responding to Deontay Wilder. Eddie, imitating his version of a stereotyped African-American voice, comes off as a bit clueless. That patronizing kind of humor doesn’t make me very concerned about his ‘British invasion.’ It makes me cringe.” (See video here: https://youtu.be/hF5cs5Fyats)

DiBella also noted that Hearn has been using the most valuable boxer he promotes, heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, in negotiations involving other fights and fighters with premium-cable rivals HBO and Showtime.

England’s Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) had a three-fight deal with Showtime, but the agreement allowed Hearn to shop the U.S. television rights to Joshua’s fights to HBO once it expired. HBO reportedly bid $1.6 million for the right to televise his mandatory defense of his IBF title against Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs) on October 28 from Cardiff, Wales. Showtime exercised its right to match and will televise the Joshua-Pulev fight live later this month.

“It’s clear that Eddie is dangling Anthony Joshua as the gold ring and using his name and star power to try to grab other fighters and get U.S. network backing,” DiBella said. “Joshua seems like a smart kid and his trainer, Rob McCracken, is a pro who wasn’t born yesterday. They’ll see right through it.”

DiBella promotes roughly 60 fighters, including Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs), who will make a mandatory defense of his WBC heavyweight title against former champion Bermane Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs) on November 4 at Barclays Center. The New York-based DiBella regularly promotes Premier Boxing Champions cards at Barclays Center and elsewhere on a show-by-show basis.

The Harvard-educated former HBO Sports executive is confident he’ll continue to promote events featuring such PBC stars as welterweights Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia.

“Why is Danny Jacobs with Eddie Hearn?,” DiBella asked. “Because he has all the attributes of the best promoter of all time? No, he’s with Eddie because he was in the right place at the right time and it allowed him to deliver an HBO deal that promised Canelo and/or Triple-G. That’s a fact, and anyone with a brain in this business knows that’s a fact.

“I’m not hating him for that, nor am I hating him for promoting in this market. Eddie Hearn isn’t an American promoter or a New York promoter, or a New York City kind of guy. I doubt he has ever set foot on Long Island and he probably thinks that Brooklyn is David Beckham’s kid. I wish him no ill will, but my best guess is that he’s gonna find out the hard way and could wind up getting booed on two continents.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.