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Hearn: new tournament

The real winners though are the public. We're going to have the most marvellous exciting evening of boxing we've had for years and years and years because it's non-stop action.

Barry Hearn
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PRIZEFIGHTER SERIES
Live on Sky Sports
9.30pm, April 11, Sky Sports 1

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Barry Hearn is staging a revolutionary heavyweight tournament he believes will change the face of boxing.

The Matchroom supremo is the brains behind Prizefighter - The Heavyweights, which will be screened live on Sky Sports from the famous York Hall, in April.

The competition will feature eight heavyweights in a knockout tournament with the bouts scheduled for three three-minute rounds.

The winners of the initial four fights will progress into the semi-finals with the final two then battling it out for the winner's prize of £25,000 out of a total pot of £67,000.

Hearn is the mastermind behind the hugely successful Premier League Darts and has managed Chris Eubank - and has current European light-welterweight champion Colin Lynes and predecessor Ted Bami on his books.

And having seen Twenty20 cricket take off, he believes he has another success on his hands.

"We looked at Twenty20 cricket and decided to concentrate on an entirely new formula, so we came up with the Prizefighter Series," he told Sky Sports News.

"It's a series of fights, the first case on April 11th, featuring just heavyweight fighters in a series of three-round fights and the competition will be eight boxers boxing down to one winner.

"The real winners though are the public. We're going to have the most marvellous exciting evening of boxing we've had for years and years and years because it's non-stop action.

"And everyone of these kids is going to be trying 110 per cent."

The Prizefighter Series line-up is almost in place, with the majority of the heavyweights relatively new to the pro game.

Southampton's Colin Kenna, a former Southern Area champion is arguably the pick of the bunch with 24 fights behind him, while David Dolan (Sunderland), Dave Ferguson (North Shields), Alex Ibbs (Stoke) and Ian Millarvie (Hamilton) are all unbeaten.

Here are the seven fighters who have so far signed up for the historic event.