DANA WHITE has sent Eddie Hearn an ominous warning amid their ongoing public feud.
The once-cordial promoters have been engaged in a war of words since the formation of Zuffa Boxing, which has been in the making for White for the last TEN YEARS.
The TKO Group, the parent company of the UFC and WWE, and Saudi conglomerate Sela have installed White as the headhoncho of Zuffa to streamline boxing the same way he has done MMA.
Zuffa have ruffled plenty of feathers over the last few months, most notably by convincing Conor Benn to ditch Matchroom and Hearn – his promoters of the last ten years – to pen a lucrative one-fight deal worth over £11million ($15M).
Hearn is relishing the fight Zuffa will bring to the table in the coming years, one White doesn’t believe the Matchroom supremo will win.
The 56-year-old said: “Whoever is out there that wants to compete. I love to compete.
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“I haven’t seen anything from anybody yet in the boxing business, to be honest with you.
“I’ve seen less than nothing from these guys.
“And the last press conference I did have after the last boxing match, it’s been pretty disappointing, to be honest with you.
“I expected a lot more. But then when you look at the state of the sport of boxing, I guess it’s not that much of a surprise.”
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There’s a massive year of boxing ahead!
It’s shaping up to be a blockbuster year of action inside the boxing ring.
Tyson Fury will make his return in April against Arslanbek Makhmudov while Oleksandr Usyk takes on the king of kickboxing Rico Verhoeven.
Conor Benn features for the first time since making the switch to Zuffa Boxing and Fabio Wardley will defend his newly won heavyweight crown.
Canelo Alvarez will be hoping to return after his defeat to Terence Crawford and heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk will also defend his straps.
Derek Chisora will fight for the 50th and (perhaps) final time against Deontay Wilder while Daniel Dubois is also on the comeback trail.
A whole bunch of British stars could also take a leap into superstardom, with the likes of Moses Itauma, Hamzah Sheeraz and Adam Azim ready to join the very top of the sport.
Here’s all the big fights coming up…
March
- Sat 21 – George Liddard vs Tyler Denny – British & Commonwealth Middleweight title – DAZN
- Sat 28 – Moses Itauma vs Jermaine Franklin – DAZN
- Sat 28 – Sebastian Fundora vs Keith Thurman – Amazon Prime PPV
April
- Sat 4 – Deontay Wilder vs Derek Chisora – DAZN PPV
- Sun 5 – Caroline Dubois vs Terri Harper – Sky Sports
- Sat 11 – Tyson Fury vs Arslanbek Makhmudov – Netflix
- Sat 11 – Conor Benn vs Regis Prograis – Netflix
- Sat 18 – Callum Smith vs David Morrell – DAZN
- Sat 18 – Manny Pacquiao vs Ruslan Provodnikov
- Sat 25 – Lawrence Okolie vs Tony Yoka – DAZN
May
- Sat 2 – Zurdo Ramirez vs David Benavidez – WBA & WBO Cruiserweight titles – Prime Video
- Sat 9 – Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois – WBO title – DAZN
- Sat 23 – Oleksandr Usyk vs Rico Verhoeven – WBC title – DAZN
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Just a few weeks after Benn upped sticks for Zuffa, Hearn hit back by signing UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall to Matchroom’s newly-launched Talent Agency.
Hearn will now look after the Atherton assassin’s commercial interests inside and outside of the octagon.
The move has baffled White, whose relationship with Aspinall has seemingly been strained since the Brit’s ill-fated title defence against Ciryl Gane – in which he suffered a horror double-eye poke – last October.
He said: “I don’t know what the thought process was [behind the move].
“Eddie was coming out saying, ‘Ah, I look forward to competing with them.
“And there’s things that they don’t know about boxing that they’re going to learn.’ And then two weeks later, he’s an MMA manager. I don’t get the move.”
Many are wondering if the feud between Hearn and White will have a detrimental effect on Aspinall.
White, however, insists those concerns are well and truly misplaced.
“We’ve dealt with some f*****g beauties over the last 25 years,” he said. “I can promise you that.
“Eddie Hearn will be no different. It doesn’t matter who the managers are.
“It doesn’t matter at all. We will get deals done with guys.”