Eddie Hearn has shed further light on the ongoing promotional spat between he and Dana White regarding who might promote Anthony Joshua-Tyson Fury later this year.
Last Saturday’s Zuffa Boxing event in Bournemouth marked their first on UK shores, but a cracking battle between Chris Billam-Smith and Ryan Rozicki was quickly overshadowed by White’s comments at the post-fight press conference. Talk turned from the hellacious slugfest to who would be promoting AJ-Fury. White, again, claimed that it would be him, that he negotiated the contracts, and that he knew where the event would take place.
These claims were put to Hearn in a recent interview with IFL TV, where Hearn quickly shut down White’s remarks.
“Dana White had nothing to do with the fight negotiations. It was done between myself and Sela and the entire legal team there for about three months,” Hearn said. “Dana White had absolutely nothing to do with the fight negotiation with Tyson Fury either. Unquestioned.
“For him to sit there and say, ‘Eddie Hearn never negotiated the fight contract,’ either he actually has no clue what he’s talking about regarding a fight negotiation or a fight contract in boxing, or he’s just a compulsive liar, which is possible. Those comments were even more bizarre than his original comments.”
White was pressed by ProBoxing Fans’ Jonathan Nagioff at Saturday’s presser over Hearn’s claims that contractually he could have nothing to do with the fight. “Do you think I would publicly lie?” White replied.
Hearn also had something to say about White’s comment.
“What Dana White doesn’t know, which he’s now been told, is that firstly there is a very clear clause in the contract, the same as Tyson Fury’s, that says Zuffa, Dana White, TKO, or anybody related can have no promotional involvement within the show,” said Hearn. “No one’s even put this to him. And when it is put to him, he goes, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, it’s in the contract.’”
White claimed that he knew where the bout would take place. Hearn believes those comments came from White holding loose conversations with Las Vegas’ MGM Grand on behalf of Saudi financier Turk Alalshikh, who will be funding the fight.
“In the contract, at the request of Anthony Joshua and myself – Dana has no clue about this because he’s not even seen the fight contract – is that the fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury must take place in the UK,” said Hearn. “It’s in the contract. [White] doesn’t even know this.
“Now listen, if Turki Alalshikh wants to renegotiate the contract, if they want to look at the money, maybe we’ll look at a fight elsewhere. But as I understand it as well, after speaking to Spencer Brown, Tyson Fury has the same clause in his contract. The fight takes place in the UK. Both fighters, Matchroom, Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren and Spencer Brown all believe this fight should take place in the UK.”
Hearn has, in recent, interviews stated that the fight will take place wherever Alalshikh wants, as he is “paying the bill”.
“We signed for the fight on the basis that the fight would take place in the UK,” Hearn said of his comments. “We were told the fight would take place in the UK. Anthony Joshua wants the fight to take place in the UK. I want this fight to take place in the UK.
“Now, we also understand that if some big opportunity comes along and Turki Alalshikh wants to take the fight internationally, we’ll have those conversations. But guess what? Those conversations won’t be had by Dana White phoning his pals at the MGM. All he is, is a hotel booker. That’s all he is.”