LONDON – Eddie Hearn has reaffirmed his position in his promotional battle with Dana White.
The Matchroom boss has made no secret of his rivalry with White’s Zuffa Boxing in recent interviews. White promoted his first boxing event last month, topped by the huge showdown between Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez, and since then has announced a broadcast deal with Paramount+ which will begin next year.
White’s plans are to implement a similar model within boxing to which he has had success in mixed martial arts. The UFC operates as a sole operator, promoter, manager and sanctioning body, all rolled into one. They implement their own rankings and have their own singular title. White announced this month that Zuffa Boxing will have their own belt and would not recognize any of the traditional titles or their rankings – apart from The Ring.
Hearn seems to have been given a new lease of life since White’s introduction into the sport and has not held back with his comments regarding the UFC frontman. Hearn, like many, has criticized White’s backing plan to provide an alternative system to the Muhammad Ali Act. Hearn has also questioned White’s passion for, and understanding of, the sport, believing he doesn’t live and breathe boxing like he does MMA. White responded to Hearn’s recent statements in a recent interview with Three Knockdown Rule.
“It’s fascinating, all of a sudden Eddie Hearn is acting like a fucking loonatic,” White said. “You know what he sounds like to me? It sounds like he’s reading a WWE script. I’ve known Eddie a while, and this isn’t Eddie’s personality. The other thing is when you hear someone like Eddie talk, he sounds like a career politician. He’s running for election now and he’s like, ‘We’re going to do this, and we’re going to do that.’ Where were you the last fucking 20 years? You didn’t do shit. Those guys never thought big, all of a sudden now Eddie’s going to change boxing and he’s going to fix this, and that. He’s going to compete with me, he’s going to do all the shit. I don’t even think about those guys, what they’re doing, how they’re doing it.”
Earlier this week Hearn spoke to BoxingScene and other members of the media regarding White’s comments.
“I’m a little bit concerned about what I saw,” said Hearn. “I like Dana [White] and I don't want it to go like this for him, but I saw that interview, I was like, ‘It's over. It's over before it's even started.’ I mean, how loud do you want to talk? Right? We know we've seen this before, where the blood pressure starts going through the roof. You could just chill. It's only little old me that doesn't think big enough. So just chill. We don't have to scream and shout. You don't have to lose your temper. The blood pressure doesn't have to go out of control. You do your thing. I'll do my thing.”
Hearn, however, is by no means underestimating his rival.
“He’s got a huge company, got a lot of money, got a lot of power,” Hearn told BoxingScene. “Can change political bills quite easily and probably incorrectly in my opinion, but it is what it is. Like I said, I can't really fault the guy, he's a top promoter but he just he don't know boxing like I know boxing.”
But what does Hearn believe his own strengths and weaknesses are?
“Weaknesses, you know, I'll be honest, absolutely none,” he said. “Strengths, I know boxing inside out, I know the game, just like he knows MMA and UFC. When you see him reading off a script for Canelo-Crawford, ‘Oh yeah we've also got this fight.’ He has absolutely no idea, just like I couldn't go into MMA and tell you the lineup of an MMA card. He can do it willy-nilly without a script. You live it every single day and he don't do that in boxing, he don't feel like I feel about boxing, he doesn't have a respect really for the sport of boxing. You're seeing that by what he's trying to do, but listen, they're a quality operation and he's a great promoter. I'm up for the battle, but I find it really flattering that it's me versus Dana White in boxing. He's giving me a spring in my step every day to get up and work harder.”
White’s plans for the sport were given a boost earlier this week when the California State Athletic Commission recently voted unanimously to support the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act.
“I mean, I think everybody in boxing is a bit shocked because the Muhammad Ali Act is there to protect the fighter and obviously someone don't want to protect the fighter,” Hearn said. “So it is what it is. I mean, we all know what's going on with stuff like that, and it's politics isn't it. So I will never understand it.“
It’s natural to wonder if Hearn, at least for now, should focus his attention elsewhere. His long time British promotional rival Frank Warren is now widely regarded as the leading promoter in the UK following a run of strong cards across the country - even bringing an undisputed heavyweight clash between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois to British shores. Hearn was asked if there is a debate over who is the best promoter in Britain with Warren’s recent form?
“Yeah I mean we're not really a British promoter, we're a global promotional company,” Hearn replied. “Frank's a brilliant British promoter, they don't do any shows in the US, we do 20 a year. They don't do shows in Mexico, we do six a year. They don't do Australia, we do five a year. So I don't… of course Frank's a competitor in the British market, but we've got to keep our eyes open for everyone. We're fighting Oscar [De La Hoya], we're fighting Dana [White], we're fighting [Bob] Arum, we're fighting PBC, we're fighting Frank Warren, we're fighting No Limit in Australia, we're fighting, I don't know, Zamfer in Mexico. So we're not really focused on one individual.”
There has been criticism of Matchroom’s UK schedule of late, and with Hearn increasingly opting to be present at US shows when there are date clashes with his UK shows, many believe his concentration has shifted to the US market. Hearn was asked if his focus on the UK has slipped in recent times?
“Not really,” he replied. “I just think that I would say we're still No.1 or we're like that [neck-and-neck] with Queensberry. But now I think we've got the best young stable of talent in British boxing, but no we definitely haven't lost focus, we just understand that, like I said, it's a huge job that we've got. No one's ever done what we've done before and it's a great position to be in.”
