One of the biggest fights in boxing this year might not just be Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury, or David Benavidez against Artur Beterbiev, or even Shakur Stevenson vs Conor Benn.
This bout isn’t one being fought in the ring but in boardrooms. And while there’s no official belt on the line, the future of sport itself could be at stake.
In one corner, you have the old guard — a traditional power player who has continued his bloodline in boxing. He is the Matchroom chairman, Eddie Hearn, and he thrives in competition.
In the other corner, you have the brash newcomer, once a spot reserved for Hearn, but now occupied by the new player entering the space. He is the UFC boss Dana White, and he’s infiltrated the Sweet Science through Zuffa Boxing alongside Nick Khan and Tom Loeffler.
It’s a fight for the ages, people. And the way they’re trashing one another, you’ll want to load up on popcorn, because this show is only just getting started.
In the last week alone Hearn called the Zuffa championship belts the “cringiest s***” he’d “ever seen,” telling iFL he wouldn’t have the gall to bring out a Matchroom title when the sport is steeped in historical championships from the WBC to the WBA, and everything that came along after.
It didn’t take long for White to respond and, following the conclusion of the Zuffa Boxing 03 event in Las Vegas on Sunday, the UFC boss told reporters that people like Hearn “don’t stop talking.” He said: “I don’t think anybody looks at Eddie Hearn and says, ‘Oh, this guy’s a visionary’. The guy’s been in boxing forever. I look at him like most politicians. You’ve done nothing in the sport … Eddie works for his dad.”
Now, speaking to The Stomping Ground, Hearn fired back.
“Dana’s always been so complimentary about us as a company and me as a promoter,” Hearn told Charlie Parsons. “But to say I don’t have any vision it’s really strange.”
“When you talk about Zuffa … their vision — what is it? Getting Max Kellerman to tell everyone that Callum Walsh is the next Roy Jones?”
“Or putting Charles Martin on a headline show on a Sunday night in front of 126 people in your garage on a ring that looks like you got it from some local club show? What sort of vision is that? It’s a belt. It’s Zuffa. What a vision. That’s not vision, that’s control.”
Hearn then criticized White and Zuffa for trying to rewrite the sport with the Muhammad Ali Revival Act, rather than coming into the sport and honoring its traditions.
“The reality is, when he says we can’t compete, they can’t compete in this cut-throat world of boxing,” Hearn said. “They want to create their own world.”
“When you compare Matchroom shows to Zuffa shows, quite frankly, Zuffa are dog-s***. But they’ll get better, sign big fighters, waste some money, but they’re clever people.”
Hearn blasted White for “trying to manipulate” fight fans by proclaiming Zuffa to be a platform where the best fight the best when “it’s not.”
He said: “The reality is, I do work for my dad, but, guess what … Dana White has worked for his daddy. The Fertitta brothers. And now he’s got a new daddy — Turki Alalshikh.
“Turki is Dana White’s papi, and he’s got to do whatever he’s told because he works for TKO, which is owned by Sela and Saudis and Turki Alalshikh.
“It took him a nanosecond to get personal because right now he’s bottom of the pile in terms of quality in terms of a boxing promoter but they’re a good operation and they will get better.”