TOKYO – The eyes of the boxing world were on Ota City General Gymnasium on Friday for the anticipated bantamweight clash between local phenom Naoya Inoue and English veteran Jamie McDonnell. Matchroom Promotions boss Eddie Hearn was on-hand supporting his fighter, McDonnell, and co-promoting the evening with Ohashi Gym.

Hearn has been at or near the top of boxing headlines for the last couple of weeks as his British invasion on the American boxing establishment has begun with his company recently opening an office in Manhattan. The opening comes on the heels of his announcing a new streaming service partnership with DAZN, worth a billion (with a “b”) dollars for Hearn to sign top talent and put on world-class shows in the U.S. A larger expansion to the U.S. market by Matchroom was widely expected when Hearn signed American middleweight standout Daniel Jacobs last September but the scale and speed to which he’s done so has caught many by surprise and ruffled more than a few feathers.

Among those not having qualms with the evolving situation (at least publicly) but rather seeing opportunities for fresh partnerships within the often strained confines of domestic boxing politics is Golden Boy Promotions. Their chief matchmaker Robert Diaz reached out to Hearn within the last 24 hours to gauge the interest of (for the time being) his only American boxer making a deal to fight their Mexican star Canelo Alvarez. The fight itself, should it be made, would take place on HBO PPV this September.

Hearn told THE RING that Jacobs “fancies the fight” and they both confidently think it’s winnable. When asked if it was more about getting Jacobs a large return on his services rendered or the fight itself, which would be a blockbuster assignment for his 31-year-old client, Hearn simply responded “both” as he sees no reason why a positive deal can’t be made with Golden Boy, which has a strong relationship with HBO, and to whom Jacobs is now contractually obligated to.

For their part, Golden Boy’s majority owner Oscar De La Hoya, recently sent a Tweet to unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin explaining to him that “the train has moved on…” in response to their stalled negotiation attempts at securing a rematch with Canelo. De La Hoya continued: “…going after Danny Jacobs, [Billy Joe] Saunders, and [Gary O’Sullivan].”

Hearn told THE RING “we want that fight.”

While boxing fans had wanted to see the Canelo-Golovkin rematch and others salivate at the possibility of Jacobs stepping in for Golovkin, the name to be most aware of on the aforementioned list is “Spike” O’Sullivan, who has a working relationship with Golden Boy. The Irish middleweight contender recently turned down an offer to face Golovkin, citing he could make millions more in the near future, an obvious plug to Canelo.

Nick Skok is The Ring magazine’s Japanese boxing correspondent and can be reached @NoSparring