The public feud between Eddie Hearn and Dana White just continues to escalate.
Once friendly and complimentary about each other in the past, White launching Zuffa Boxing has led to more than a few cantankerous exchanges through interviews and press conferences. Most recently, White admitted he was stunned at how he’s faced such little resistance from established boxing promoters since getting involved with the sport and compared it to “beating up babies.”
He then went onto take aim at Hearn and his promotion Matchroom Boxing by saying they’ve done “nothing in the sport” and ultimately Hearn just works for his father and never had any real “vision” for the future.
Hearn obviously heard the comments and wasted no time firing back at White.
“That’s a sick mind, for one,” Hearn said about White’s “beating up babies” analogy when speaking to Charlie Parsons. “I don’t know what the f*ck he was talking about there. That’s quite disturbing, if I’m honest with you. It’s very strange because I’ve got to be honest with you, I wouldn’t say up my ass, but Dana’s always been so complimentary about us as a company and me as a promoter but to say that I don’t have any vision is really quite strange.
“I mean right now when you talk about Zuffa [Boxing] or whatever it’s called, when you talk about their vision, what’s their vision? Getting Max Kellerman to tell everyone that Callum Walsh is the next Roy Jones? Or putting Charles Martin on a headline show on a Sunday night in front of 126 people in your garage? In a ring that looks like you just got it out of a local club show. What sort of f*cking vision’s that? Or better still, here’s a belt, here’s Zuffa, look at the vision. That’s not vision. That’s control. Because the reality is when he says ‘we can’t compete’ — they can’t compete in this cutthroat world of boxing. Because it’s a horrible world, and they don’t want to compete. They want to create their own world.”
White has repeatedly stated that he’s just getting started with Zuffa Boxing but he’s already seen great results through the first four shows for the promotion.
It sounds like Hearn has been watching but he hasn’t been impressed, especially when it comes to the quality of talent on display.
“Listen at the moment when you compare Matchroom shows to Zuffa shows, quite frankly Zuffa shows are absolute complete dogshit,” Hearn said. “But they’re going to get better and they’re going to sign some big fighters and they’re going to spunk some money, they’re going to waste some money. I’ve said it before, they’re clever people.
“But right now they’re trying to manipulate fight fans, and they don’t understand how intelligent fight fans are when it comes to boxing. You can’t create these cards and tell everyone it’s the best [versus] the best because it’s quite frankly not.”
As far as working for his father, Hearn didn’t shy away from the reality of his situation where Barry Hearn founded Matchroom and he currently helps him run the company.
But Hearn says that’s really no different from what White did working as UFC president and now serving as UFC CEO because he wasn’t ultimately the final decision maker in either instance.
“The reality is yes, I do work for my dad,” Hearn said. “But guess what? Dana White has worked for his daddy for a long time. The Fertitta brothers, that’s who he worked for. Right now, Dana White’s got a new daddy and his name is Turki Alalshikh. Turki Alalshikh is Dana White’s pappy.
“He has got to do whatever he’s told because he works for TKO [Group Holdings], which is owned by SELA and the Saudis and Turki Alalshikh.”
The back-and-forth exchanges between Hearn and White have only gotten more heated in recent weeks and the escalating tension between them likely isn’t going away any time soon.
Hearn felt like White’s comment about working for his father was a bit of a low blow but he’s happy to respond in kind.
“It took him a nanosecond to get personal,” Hearn said about White. “But that’s because right now he’s right at the bottom of the pile in terms of quality as a boxing promoter. As I keep saying, they’re a good operation and they will get better.”
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