Eddie Hearn prepared to go to Carl Frampton with improved offer to fight Scott Quigg
Friday 17 July 2015 17:56, UK
Promoter Eddie Hearn will approach Carl Frampton with an improved offer to fight Scott Quigg if both retain their super-bantamweight world titles this weekend.
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WBA champion Quigg faces Kiko Martinez in Manchester live on Sky Sports on Saturday night while IBF king Frampton, who took his belt from Martinez, is in action against Alejandro Gonzalez Jr in Texas.
Negotiations over a unification fight have stalled for a long time after Frampton's camp turned down an offer of £1.5m, with the Northern Irishman's manager Barry McGuigan claiming this week: "Scott Quigg doesn't merit 50% of the purse. Carl has won all his title fights. He's taken risks. He's buying out arenas. He's been a headline act; all of the things that Quigg has not done.
"When you come into this fight with a voluntary defense, the guy gets as much as the champion wants to pay him. Or even in the mandatory position, it's still a 75/25% situation. So we said we'd start at 70/30 but the least we would take would be 60/40, and they wouldn't play ball. It's as simple as that."
Hearn was quick to hit back and, with Quigg eyeing a bout with Nonito Donaire next up, insists the Bury fighter has work to do on Saturday night before he can start thinking about future opponents.
All being well on Saturday, we will go back to them and try and make the fight with an improved offer. I won't hold my breath though.
Hearn told Sky Sports: "They [Frampton's camp] say that Quigg brings no value to the table yet all they have done in the week leading up to Frampton's American debut is talk about Scott Quigg!
"All being well on Saturday, we will go back to them and try and make the fight with an improved offer. I won't hold my breath though.
"For us, I think Donaire is the more likely fight. We are already in positive discussions with Bob Arum over that and it can be made very quickly for November.
"All of this is immaterial unless Scott gets the job done tomorrow. The focus is 100% on Martinez. It's the toughest fight of Scott's career."
Both fighters have previously made public their desire for the all-British world title unification clash to take place.
