People have been wanting to know why my fight with Scott Quigg didn’t happen this summer so I’d like to put the record straight.

There’s a lot of people in the Eddie Hearn fan club who were quite happy to put the blame on us (Cyclone Promotions) for the fight falling through — but that’s not the case.

My team have had to work very hard at building up my profile from the start of my career because I didn’t come into the professional ranks as an Olympic gold medallist, which obviously gives you a good foundation. But I’ve got great backing from my fans, the 16,000 that came out to watch me win the World title at Titanic was amazing and because of my popularity I am a far bigger draw and that naturally means that I get bigger purses than Quigg. That’s how boxing works.

The meeting that Jake McGuigan (head of boxing at Cyclone) had with Quigg’s promoter Eddie Hearn went very well and there was an understanding that with some movement from both camps the fight would get done.

I think some people thought it was going to be a unification fight but it couldn’t be because the IBF told us they wouldn’t recognise Quigg’s WBA regular belt in a unification fight.

I would have been defending my title and I was prepared to fight in Quigg’s own back yard in the Manchester Arena for a minimum 60-40 split in my favour, which is still less than my true value.

But, of course, Hearn had to go back and speak to Quigg and that’s when it all started to fall apart. I think ultimately Quigg is the one to blame.

A representative of Quigg got in touch with our team and said his man would move to a 51-49 split in my favour but that was ridiculous. Quigg just over-valued himself.

Then all of a sudden Hearn came back with that public offer of £1.5m which also meant that the show would have been sole Matchroom Sports promotion. I’m sure many readers would think that £1.5m was a great offer but we would have had no knowledge of the amount of pay-per-view buys and the overall revenue generated.

Knowing what the Bellew-Cleverly and Froch-Groves PPV fights generated, myself and Quigg would have been somewhere in between which means I should be earning more than what Hearn was offering. With the offer Hearn made, Quigg could have been earning more than me and that would have been out of order.

Quigg could have had his biggest pay-day but instead he’s now facing Kiko Martinez for nowhere near the same money.

Kiko is a true warrior, we respect each other a lot and would direct-message each other on social media and he is a very dangerous opponent — I keep changing my mind on who will win their fight which is on July 18, the same night I fight in El Paso against Alejandro Gonzalez jnr.

Quigg is taking a gamble and he could blow the biggest pay-day of his life. I have to focus on my world title fight. Win it and hopefully we can get a deal done with Quigg.

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Belfast Telegraph