Dana White and Eddie Hearn continue to be at odds with one another.
For much of 2026, White and Hearn have been engaged in a public feud, with the two even briefly discussing boxing each other. The primary friction between the two stems from White’s move into boxing promotion with Zuffa Boxing — taking some of Hearn’s fighters — and Hearn’s move to take on a few high-profile MMA fighters to manage. But lately, their biggest issue has been the planned heavyweight superfight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
Fury and Joshua are supposed to fight in their long-awaited matchup before the end of the year, and earlier this year, White claimed to be the promoter of the fight. Hearn disputes this claim, and when rumors began circulating on Tuesday that an announcement was imminent for the fight to take place in November at Madison Square Garden, Hearn shot that down.
“Actually, I should be suing Dana White, because what he’s doing is, he’s actually purporting to have the ability to stage the fight there, and he’s using my client to do a venue deal that he has no rights to,” Hearn told About Boxing. …
“The reality is, now, TKO are coming on, asking me if they can be involved. So Dana White’s gone from being the promoter of the event to asking if he can be involved. And rather than going, ‘Fuck off!’ I’m saying, why? Why should I let you be involved in this event? Break it down for me. Tell me how it benefits Anthony Joshua. Tell me how it benefits Matchroom. Tell me how it benefits my fighters. What do you want to do? Do you want to do Matchroom vs. Zuffa 5 v. 5 on the undercard? OK, if it gives my fighters an opportunity.
“It’s like I said to them, ‘I’ll tell you what, let me promote WrestleMania.’ Because this is my WrestleMania. And absolutely not, unless you can give me reasons why. … Why? Why should we? Business is business. And if it makes sense for AJ, and maybe Matchroom, and some of our fighters, I’m up for a chat. And listen, we may get there.”
White has been frustrated by the ongoing delays in announcing the fight, while refusing to get into specifics. But Hearn is happy to lay his issues out.
“To be honest, all I can really tell you is we’ve signed for the fight,” Hearn said. “Obviously, they want to change the contract that we signed, which we don’t like to do. It’s not something that we do as a company. But we also understand that these guys are our partners, and it seems like everybody is adamant that the fight takes place in New York. …
“Tyson Fury has agreed to do the fight in America, and we haven’t at the moment. So, we’re talking through a roadmap of what that might look like to change the deal. And if they do all the things that we’ve discussed and agreed in principle, then I think there is a very good chance that the fight will happen in America.”
White, meanwhile, is putting no stock in what Hearn says. Following the latest edition of Contender Series on Tuesday night, White answered questions from the media, and after playfully sidestepping a question about the Madison Square Garden rumor, he then responded to Hearn’s comments.
“I have not. I stopped listening to Eddie Hearn about three months ago,” White said. “Is there anybody more full of shit than this guy? Come on. Completely full of shit.”
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