Eddie Hearn and Dana White continue to disagree over White’s involvement—or lack thereof—in the long-awaited Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua fight.
Even before Fury vs. Joshua was in the works, Hearn vs. White was becoming one of the most prominent feuds in combat sports, especially with White venturing into boxing with his Zuffa Boxing promotion. Once Joshua, a fighter managed by Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, entered serious talks to fight Fury, a number of other parties became involved in the negotiations including Saudi boxing backer Turki Alalshikh.
A White ally, Alalshikh has maintained the UFC CEO is part of the fight promotion, with White claiming he’s also involved in production. Hearn maintains that isn’t the case and that White has nothing at all to due with the blockbuster event on Dec. 11.
“He now wants to pivot to say he’s doing the production,” Hearn told iFL TV. “So, under our contracts, he can’t. So that’s really where we stand on it. And Sela have confirmed to us in writing that Dana White and the UFC are not doing the production for this show. So, we have to go through the same process, blah blah blah, we’ll speak to Netflix, and guess what, Whisper, the production company that did the production for Fury-Makhmudov, they have a contract to do the production for Fury-AJ on Netflix.”
White continues to insist he’s involved, promoting the event on his social media channels and recently claiming Fury was originally intended to announce the fight at the UFC White House event this past June. He also campaigned for the bout to take place at Madison Square Garden, but Hearn and his team put a stop to that, ensuring Fury and Joshua would fight in the U.K. in Cardiff, Wales.
Once the location was set in stone, Hearn considered his business with White settled.
“So look, read the production, if they want to speak to us about changing the production, I’m open to a conversation,” Hearn said. “Show me how it looks. I don’t really care. I’ve won. Listen, I’ve won our battle. And the main battle was, don’t let this fight happen in America. Don’t take this fight away from British fans. And we won. The main battle was him thinking he’s the promoter of the event. Now he’s saying, ‘There’s a lot of us promoting, and I’m doing a post here on Instagram, so of course, I’m promoting.’ It’s weak as shit.
“So, I’m not really bothered. We’re focused on the fight. Of course, we’ll stand our ground contractually, but that’s it. I’m not going to keep going on about it.”
TOP STORIES
Harsh. Jose Aldo is not a fan of UFC 333 title challenger Movsar Evloev’s fighting style.
Focus. Merab Dvalishvili is keeping his cool when it comes to Petr Yan rivalry.
Care. Sean O’Malley wonders if Yan has made a crucial mistake ahead of Dvalishvili trilogy bout.
Mockery. Eddie Hearn takes more shots at Dana White and Zuffa Boxing for the abrupt exit of Shakur Stevenson.
Respect. Alexander Volkanovski says no one tested him like Islam Makhachev.
Undefeateds. Muhammad Mokaev has Farid Basharat’s back in dispute with UFC.
Past. Amanda Nunes doesn’t think Kayla Harrison has evolved much since their American Top Team days.
VIDEO STEW
MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck chats with Merab Dvalishvili ahead of UFC 333.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
We’re just a few days away from two of my favorite matchups of the year, Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev, and Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili 3. I haven’t made my proper predictions yet, but right now I think I’m leaning Movsar and Yan? I expect to flip-flop multiple times before fight night.
Damn, UFC 333 looks good. — Lee
EXIT POLL
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