After the recent announcement of Dillian Whyte’s rematch with Derek Chisora, fans were left to questions promoter Eddie Hearn.

The rematch of their December 2016 classic will take place on December 22, however, on that same night fellow promoter Frank Warren stages the IBF featherweight title fight between champion Josh Warrington and Carl Frampton.

Both fights will be on pay-per-view, and with Warren announcing the fight two months prior, fans were left frustrated with Hearn’s choice to stage the fight on the same night.

However, in an interview with Boxing News editor, Matt Christie, the Matchroom boss revealed why he was willing to go head-to-head with his rivals.

Hearn cited his previous experience with promoting the Frampton v Scott Quigg PPV in 2016 and Whyte v Chisora appealing to a wider audience was deciding factor to sharing the December date.

Hearn on going head to head with Warren 

“Naturally, it’s two completely different fights and two completely different markets,” Hearn said.

“Frampton-Warrington is a hardcore fans’ fight, it’s not a fight for the casuals, it’s never going to attract casuals, even if it wasn’t on the same night as us.

“If this wasn’t Warrington-Frampton, if it was [Deontay] Wilder-[Tyson] Fury [on December 22] we would have had no choice but to not go.

“But, again, not being critical of Frampton-Warrington, look, I did Frampton-Quigg , I know the numbers, it’s not a threat.”

For fans the logical answer to this dilemma would be to have the heavyweight rematch staged on a different date.

Hearn explains why he won't stage the fight on a later date 

However, Hearn claimed financially the December date makes more sense, while it also gives the winner good time to prepare for a possible Anthony Joshua fight, as the unified heavyweight champion is already confirmed to be fighting on April 13, 2019, at Wembley Stadium.

“(January is) a poor month for pay-per-view. (And) Dillian wants to fight Anthony Joshua in April or at least have to opportunity to do so if he wins. If we go in January that wouldn’t be the case,” Hearn said.

“Frampton-Warrington is just not big enough to stop me from staging Whyte-Chisora on the 22nd. It’s not ideal but I’m happy to lose 50,000 buys to get that date and that venue, if that makes sense.

Why Whyte and Chisora is on PPV 

Hearn also received criticism from fans for having the non world title fight broadcasted on PPV, but the promoter claimed Whyte’s ability to draw in numbers was the deciding factor to the decision.

“We’re under no instruction to do another pay-per-view," Hearn claimed.

"The only instruction we’re under is that every fighter wants to fight on pay-per-view. And the numbers keep getting better and better and better.

“Look at Whyte against (Joseph) Parker, which happened on July 28 – which is a horrible day for pay-per-view, because people are on holiday, it’s the summer, it’s hot – and we nearly did 400,000 buys

“Did we have to do PPV? No. But then obviously the difference with this fight being on PPV and not PPV is that the two fighters will earn well over seven figures each.

“We definitely didn’t have to do another PPV, but we did do if we wanted to make this fight.”