The war of words between promotional rivals Dana White, the UFC boss who is also a de facto front man for Zuffa Boxing, and Matchroom leader Eddie Hearn, shows no signs of abating with the Brit firing back at the American’s latest comments.
It is all a far cry from how amicable they were with one another, with Boxing Social hearing positive comments from Hearn to White pre-COVID, and White even telling us he was thrilled when Matchroom signed an event deal in Abu Dhabi — a region UFC holds events in — because he likes seeing “good things happen to good people.”
But that has all changed now with trash talk between them, belittling one another’s business amid bragaddacio claims.
“Boxing is not for him,” Hearn said on Monday’s ‘The Ariel Helwani Show’, saying: “It’s the worst business in the world.”
More commonly associated with the extraordinary rise of the UFC, and the strange Power Slap promotion, White has overseen four Zuffa Boxing events from the MMA market-leader’s headquarters and television studio base in Las Vegas. The shows have been produced well, in-house, with a ProBox 2.0 feel.
Speaking to reporters after Jai Opetaia’s one-sided win over Brandon Glanton at the Meta APEX, White said boxing “is broken” because everybody operating within it is “rinky dink”.
“I’m going to sign everybody that we think has potential to be a world champion or potentially best of all time.”
On Top Rank’s Bob Arum, Golden Boy’s Oscar de la Hoya, and Hearn, he said: “These guys are f terrible.”
Reacting, Hearn said he didn’t expect White and Zuffa “to implode this early.”
He said: “There’s four or five clips, he’s not stopped talking about me, called me out for a fight — a fight! Then, he says I’m not competition. And I agree. He cannot lace my boots.”
Hearn then suggested White and Zuffa Boxing gaslight boxing fans. “He’s spinning a narrative like he’s created these unbelievable blockbuster shows in stadiums. He ain’t out the garage yet. Literally, four shows in, and it’s absolutely bang-average content.
“To say we’re not a competitor is the most bizarre statement, when we’re coming out of sell-out shows in the UK, America, world championship fights.
“What Zuffa is doing at the moment, is if we were in COVID, I’d say, ‘You are doing okay.’
“You can’t even be bothered to leave your office, where you’ve got 200 people watching — supposedly a world championship fight, which, by the way, wasn’t actually a world championship fight.
“If you listen to it, it’s literally like every show they’ve done is a stadium sellout with pound-for-pound stars in unification fights, and it’s just set the sport alight,” Hearn finished. “They have done nothing at all.”
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