Junior welterweight world titleholder Maurice Hooker on Thursday signed to extend his co-promotional contract with Roc Nation Sports and Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing.
The announcement of the deal came two weeks after Hooker scored a ninth-round knockdown and easily outpointed Mikkel LesPierre to retain his title for the second time on March 9 at the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.
“We had been working on it for the past several weeks, even before the Turning Stone fight,” Roc Nation Sports promoter Dino Duva told ESPN. “We’re very happy with the situation and Mo is happy with it.”
Hooker still had one fight to go on a three-fight deal with Roc Nation and Matchroom Boxing. The new deal will tack on two additional bouts and keep him fighting on sports streaming service DAZN, where Hearn has a long-term deal.
“Maurice is peaking and getting better and better,” Duva said. “I don’t think he’s at his peak yet.”
The plan is to take Hooker (26-0-3, 17 KOs), 29, to his hometown of Dallas for his next title defense in July.
“We’re planning on going to Dallas in July and the ultimate goal is to unify the titles,” Duva said. “With all the politics and guys fighting on different outlets it’s going to be tough but hopefully we can figure it out. For July, we are looking at possible opponents now.”
One possible opponent could be England’s Jack Caterall (23-0, 12 KOs), who is Hooker’s mandatory challenger. He was ringside to watch Hooker against LesPierre. Hooker, who struggled badly to make 140 pounds for the fight with LesPierre, said he would most like to unify with Jose Ramirez, a Top Rank fighter whose fights are on ESPN platforms.
“I’m learning as I go. I’m not done yet at (140 pounds),” Hooker said. “I want the massive fights.”
When Hearn made his deal with DAZN last year, Hooker was one of the first world titleholders he signed and said he was glad to do a new deal with him.
“I’m delighted to extend our agreement with Maurice and Roc Nation Sports,” Hearn said. “Maurice will return this summer, most likely in Dallas, giving him three world title defenses in just seven months. We like to keep our world champions nice and busy and we want to push for unification matchups in 2019. I believe Maurice is the best 140-pounder in the world right now and we look forward to helping him prove it on DAZN.”
Hooker won a vacant world title on the road by going to Terry Flanagan’s hometown of Manchester, England, in June and winning a split decision. He made his first defense on the road too, going to Alex Saucedo hometown of Oklahoma City in November and knocking him out in the seventh round.