Dana White vs. Eddie Hearn might be the hottest feud in all of combat sports, at least as far as Chael Sonnen is concerned.
The infamous promoters have threatened to overshadow the upcoming Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua fight, with White and Hearn’s longstanding personal beef spilling over into the business side. Fury vs. Joshua has been announced for Dec. 11 in Cardiff, Wales, and Hearn has insisted that White has no involvement with the boxing match despite White’s alliance with Turki Alalshikh, one of the men bankrolling the highly anticipated heavyweight contest; White maintains he is promoting the fight in an official capacity, no matter what Hearn and his team say.
On his You’re Welcome podcast, Sonnen questioned if Hearn and White are intentionally feuding to increase interest in the fight, and if if it could be to the benefit of all involved in the end.
“Is Eddie working?” Sonnen said. “That’s the entire question. Does Eddie understand this so well that he is putting out a performance and he is creating a fight with Dana as a way of capturing media and headlines, as a way which he then parlays to bringing attention to Joshua and Fury. Because if it’s orchestrated and he’s doing it ahead of time, right?—Let’s say he’s not, let’s say it’s not orchestrated. This is straight-up how Eddie feels and straight-up how Dana feels and there’s no greater plan. It’s still achieving the other goal.”
Fury vs. Joshua has been a dream fight for years, especially in their native England. Both boxers have won world titles at heavyweight and battled a who’s who of legendary heavyweights over the years, but no promoters have managed to book the two to share the ring until now.
Even given the substantial hype, Sonnen isn’t sure the fight means as much for fans in North America, and perhaps that’s why White is dead set on being part of the story.
“The point I’m attempting to make for you is just simply, at least in North America, the much more clicks, the much more views, the much more requests for interviews is for the fight between Dana White and Eddie Hearn,” Sonnen said. “Now they’re getting Netflix involved, and Netflix hasn’t quite taken the bait yet, but if they do come out and weigh in, that’s going to be headline news for a couple of days. … It turns into one of these things where you could get a weak news cycle and that can be very helpful for any sporting event you’re doing, let alone pugilism, which is not one of the premier sports.”
Should White be correct that he is an integral part of Fury vs. Joshua, it’s unclear exactly what his role is. This past weekend, following a Zuffa Boxing event in London, White bristled at reporters asking him to explain his involvement in the fight, claiming that he has already done so.
Sonnen can’t pin down White’s angle, and credits Hearn with being more straightforward with his take on the situation.
“Now, which one is right?” Sonnen said. “And I don’t believe that this is a game of who is telling the truth. Dana, who is known to be very straight with you guys, also has legal reasons… He is the CEO of the UFC, which by the way, is overseen by TKO, which by the way is a publicly traded company. The rules are completely different. So for Dana to come out in that capacity and to make a statement, at a minimum he has to legally believe that it’s right, and that’s before you get into the fact that Dana White, you couldn’t tell me a time that he has swerved you in the first place, right? So I don’t think that we have a question of who’s telling the truth.
“The truth, by the way—which is a word I’ve never looked up, but my mother told me—is what you believe, and she said that a lie is when you make a statement knowing that it’s inaccurate, so I think they’re both very much telling the truth. Who’s going to be right? This is a very black-and-white argument. Eddie Hearn is saying that Dana White is not and cannot be involved. Eddie Hearn has gone further to say it’s in a contract. He’s now recently gone further to say it is in the very first paragraph of the contract. And then Eddie even gave us the language. And he covered his bases. He talked about Zuffa Boxing, he talked about TKO, and he named Dana White, specifically, and then he named the things that he cannot be involved with. He cannot be involved with the fight. What does that mean? He cannot be in a press release. He cannot be on stage. He cannot be at the press conference. It was pretty simple. It wasn’t complex wording.”
Sonnen has worked with White for years, both as a fighter and broadcaster for the UFC. Still, he’s enjoying what Hearn has brought to the table so far and thinks he and White are adding another layer of entertainment to the Fury vs. Joshua hype, even if that’s not their intention.
“I’m not ready to turn on Eddie because he’s got a job to do, which is to get us talking about the fight, and at least in North America, the feud between Eddie and Dana is much hotter than the suggested match that we here greatly wanted to see 14 years ago,” Sonnen said. “So let’s let this play. I don’t believe either side is lying.
“There will ultimately be a judgment. Somebody is going to have to come in with some form of a judgment. I believe that that will ultimately be Netflix. And if I was going to predict how that goes, not having any information, I cannot imagine that somebody would go against Dana just purely for social reasons. But let this play before you get too worked up on it. Enjoy the battle. It’s going to be gone soon. It’s here now. Don’t always worry about what’s on the test. Sometimes, just enjoy the class.”
