Barry Hearn
Born: June 19, 1948
Induction: 2014
Born June 19, 1948 in Dagenham, London, England. A chartered accountant, Hearn founded sports promotional company Matchroom Sport in 1982 and continues to serve as chairman. The company is one of the world’s largest suppliers of sports programming including snooker, bowling, golf, fishing, darts, ping-pong and poker.
A life-long aficionado of the sweet science, in 1987 Hearn moved into the boxing promotion realm and would ultimately present hundreds of British, European and World title bouts for television. Matchroom Sport’s first high profile contest was Frank Bruno vs. Joe Bugner in 1987. During the 1990s he promoted such standouts as Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, Steve Collins, Naseem Hamed, Herbie Hide and Lennox Lewis. In 2008 he created the popular Prizefighter series – a one-night tournament featuring eight fighters.
Since 2012, and recently extended until 2016, Matchroom Sport has been the exclusive provider of fight cards to Great Britian’s Sky Sports. The current roster of boxers under Hearn’s banner include champions Carl Froch, Darren Barker, Ricky Burns and Scott Quigg; contenders Tony Bellew and Kell Brook; and Olympic gold medalists Anthony Joshua and Luke Campbell.