Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are supposed to clash in December, but the fight barely got announced before controversy erupted about UFC CEO Dana White’s supposed involvement in the fight.
Joshua’s longtime promoter Eddie Hearn effectively took a victory lap after the fight was announced as he celebrated the fact that the event was taking place in England and not the United States. On top of that, Hearn immediately declared that White had no involvement in the event despite being touted as one of the promoters for the card when Netflix announced plans to broadcast the December event.
During the Zuffa Boxing card in England on Saturday, veteran play-by-play man Max Kellerman tossed a little fuel on the fire by claiming that White’s involvement in the fight wasn’t as a promoter but rather as some sort of personal assistant to Alalshikh, who is funding the card through Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.
“Dana White’s involvement in the fight, so people know, is purely in assisting Turki Alalshikh, who has been the engine behind just about every big fight in boxing over the last handful of years,” Kellerman said during the broadcast. “He’s assisting Turki in a personal capacity, not as a promoter.”
White has long stated that he was involved in helping put together the long awaited fight between Fury and Joshua but it’s taken months for the matchup to actually come together.
For his part even White seemed confused by what Kellerman had to say about his role in the fight.
“I don’t know where that came from,” White said at the Zuffa 11 post-fight press conference. ‘That was weird. We’re promoting the fight right now. I’ve said 150,000 times I don’t know if I’ve ever known anybody who’s more full of f*cking shit than Eddie Hearn.“
There is a possible press conference for Fury vs. Joshua on Wednesday, but White played coy if he will attend the event.
“I guess I’ll leave that as a surprise,” White said.
