Eddie Hearn thinks Dana White has no idea how much trouble he’s getting himself into.
White, the UFC CEO and brains behind Zuffa Boxing, has become increasingly aggressive as he looks to stake his claim in the boxing world, with his newfound fight promotion recently making moves to book a matchup between Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn. The bout has hit one roadblock already, with Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions—Garcia’s management—sending a cease-and-desist letter to Zuffa Boxing for the unauthorized negotiation.
Now, Hearn claims White and company have been hit by a second cease-and-desist from DAZN, who have an exclusive broadcast deal with Garcia.
“The reason he’s thrown his toys out the pram about DAZN is because three or four days ago, DAZN issued a cease-and-desist on Dana White for talking to Ryan Garcia because Ryan Garcia is under an exclusive contract with DAZN,” Hearn told iFL TV. “So Dana actually had two cease-and-desists, one from Golden Boy and Oscar de la Hoya and one from DAZN. … I have fighters that are under exclusive contracts with DAZN, who have fought on Netflix, and it has been a very difficult conversation to have with my broadcast partner, but after some negotiation and some sensible conversation, we were able to find a solution where Katie Taylor boxed on Netflix twice. In a bigger scenario, Anthony Joshua, who’s under an exclusive broadcast deal with DAZN, fought Jake Paul on Netflix, there was a negotiation, everybody was happy, and we move forward.
“The problem is with these guys, they have no regard. So unfortunately for Dana, if you want to make Conor Benn against Ryan Garcia, Oscar de la Hoya and Golden Boy are going to be a co-promoter, your co-promotional partner. So you better drop the ego and understand that when you’re doing the press conference, Oscar de la Hoya will be up there on the stage with you. They can’t handle it.”
Hearn piled on the criticism during an appearance on a DAZN podcast.
“Some more pure arrogance from Zuffa Boxing and Dana White, who seem to be attracting a different lawsuit every week at the moment in boxing because the issue is—and I said this for these guys going in—they can’t control, these guys are control freaks,” Hearn said. “In the UFC world, they come in, they can manipulate things, they can dominate people, they can force fighters’ hands to do things. It doesn’t work like that in boxing. And what you have is a situation, which is quite interesting actually, because they have to deliver the Ryan Garcia fight for Conor Benn.”
White recently took public shots at DAZN, claiming that nobody watches the streaming service in the United States.
In Hearn’s opinion, White’s criticism makes little sense because while the UFC has a home on Paramount+ in the U.S., the promotion’s shows are featured on DAZN in other countries.
“This is how much Dana’s head is completely fallen off,” Hearn said. “He comes out yesterday and starts slagging off DAZN. ‘DAZN, who even watches DAZN? This is a joke, all these promoters getting together on DAZN.’ The UFC has broadcast contracts with DAZN in key international markets and he’s like—I don’t even think he knows that, to be honest with you.”
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