Eddie Hearn mocks Dana White's plans: 'No fighter with any ambition wants to fight for a Zuffa Boxing belt'

The rivalry between Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn and UFC CEO Dana White doesn’t seem to be winding down any time soon.

White and Hearn have publicly acknowledged their respect for each other’s achievements over the years, but in recent weeks, with White and TKO’s Zuffa Boxing announcing a boxing broadcast deal with Paramount and detailing future plans for the sport, it appears battle lines have been drawn.

Hearn’s open criticism of Zuffa’s fighter compensation and plans to create its own championship have not sat well with White, who recently said Hearn “went Oscar De La Hoya overnight.” De La Hoya has had a long-standing rivalry with White and has been a vocal critic of his entrance into boxing and White’s support of the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act.

“If you listen to what I say about Dana, you’ll never hear me speak negatively about Dana,” Hearn told Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show” on Wednesday. “He’s been very good to me, I really respect him, but you have to understand that my life is the sport of boxing and our company. When you say publicly that you’re coming into the sport and you’re going to dominate the sport and you’re going to be the CEO of boxing, what do you want me to do? Roll over and let you tickle my belly? No.

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“When you come out and say, ‘People like Eddie Hearn, they don’t really have the vision [to think big]’ — if I’ve ever been accused of many things, that’s one thing that I’ve never been accused of. All that does is put a fire in my belly. But I need that fire. I live for that s***. I can’t wait to take him on. I’ve looked at him before in the past [thinking], ‘He’s really good at what he does. What a great business TKO is. Imagine competing with them.’ Now, we’re competitors.”

Hearn has relished the idea of going up against White as a boxing promoter, insisting that the UFC head honcho “couldn’t lace [his] boots.” White’s entrance into boxing has been met with a mixed reception overall. While some believe White’s one-belt policy and cross-promotional ability with other TKO properties — namely UFC and WWE — are positives for boxing, others have raised questions about White’s history with fighter pay, which recently resulted in a $375 million UFC antitrust settlement. White has also been adamantly against working with other promoters in the past, potentially closing the door on matchups fans are hoping to see.

“I’ve had those conversations before [about creating my own belt],” Hearn said. “The reality is, no fighter with any ambition wants to fight for a Zuffa Boxing belt. I’m sorry. It will just be fighters that really have a great opportunity to make some money and be part of something, or someone [who’s] sold out within the sport and just wants to take the money. You ask any young fighter.

“I have my differences with the WBC and all the governing bodies. If we didn’t have our differences, we’d be doing something wrong. Let me tell you something now: The WBC is a legacy, and it is part of the absolute history of the sport of boxing. You know the fighters [who] have had the belt around their waist? These are heroes. These are trailblazers. These are some of the greatest names in sporting history that young fighters look at and say, ‘I want to win the WBC title.’ You think that if I tried to convince my guys, ‘Yeah, guys, we’re going to create a Matchroom belt now’ — they’d tell me to [f*** off].

“[They’d say,] ‘I want to win the WBC world title, the WBA, the WBO, the IBF.’ We moan about the politics, and rightfully so. Sometimes [the governing bodies] make some bad decisions. But you cannot underestimate the history and the legacy of those belts. For me now, I’m doubling down. I’m all about the belts.”

Zuffa will need the passage of the bipartisan Ali Revival Act, which the company is backing as it moves through Congress. That would allow Zuffa to create a Unified Boxing Organization (UBO) — a separate parallel system to the current boxing model, where fighters would have the choice to fight for the UBO’s belt under the UBO’s ranking system, much like the UFC, rather than the traditional four-belt system in boxing.

Should the Ali Revival Act pass, Zuffa would be able to create the Zuffa Boxing belt, which eliminates the need for the company to work with fighters and promoters outside of its own syndicate. Those fighters outside the organization would not have the opportunity to fight for the Zuffa belt, nor would they be ranked.

The UBO model, perhaps intentionally, would create a division between traditional boxing and White’s efforts in the sport. There have also been suggestions that Zuffa could roll out other new rules and a new ring design when it launches in 2026.

“I don’t want a new belt. I don’t want to change the ring. I don’t want a funky canvas cover. I’m going boxing,” Heard said, mocking White’s plans. “This is in my blood. This is in my heart — the sport of boxing. The greatest sport, in my opinion, in the world. The drama, the glory, the pain of defeat, the stories, everything. I want to follow in the traditions and greatness of the sport. We [traditional boxing promoters] all need to come together. We’re always going to argue, us and Bob [Arum] and Oscar, but we need to make great fights. Rather than me coming in and saying, ‘Yeah, my broadcast position’ — no.

“We want to forge stronger relationships with those people, so we can make bigger fights together. We can work together on DAZN. We can work together on other platforms. When we come out firing in 2026, I want the fight fans to go, ‘Wow, look at that schedule and what we’re building right now.’ Dana coming in is actually brilliant for the sport, because what it does is it just rattles and rallies everybody up.”

Hearn believes that White’s entrance into the sport could give other promoters the motivation they need to step up their game and work together to combat White’s threat of dominating the pugilistic art. Hearn, after all, has firsthand experience of this. When he arrived in the U.S. market with DAZN in 2018, armed with a $1 billion war chest, he found that his American rivals were not planning to go down without a fight. Hearn’s entrance was met with fierce resistance, and although Matchroom is arguably in the strongest position it has ever experienced in the U.S., Hearn may have newfound respect for his competitors’ desire to fight him off.

Matchroom shocked the boxing world earlier this week when it announced the signing of star British light heavyweight prospect Ben Whittaker. Whittaker became a promotional free agent following Sky Sports’ decision not to renew its four-year, £36 million media rights deal ($48.5 million) with BOXXER in June.

For Hearn’s Matchroom, which has fallen behind to Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions in the U.K. in the past 12 months, it was a major coup and certainly its biggest move in the U.K. market in several years. Whittaker, who boasts 3.5 million Instagram followers, is one of the top rising stars in boxing — and a man who many believe can be the face of the sport in Britain in the post-Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury era.

Hearn almost signed Whittaker when he came out of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics with a silver medal, but Whittaker ultimately chose the far more lucrative offer from BOXXER.

“A lot of people don’t know, but we agreed to terms with Ben Whittaker three years ago,” Hearn said. “We filmed a promo with him whilst the lawyers were tying up the contract literally with a few minor bits and pieces [left to agree]. We filmed the promo — we’ve still got it — and then one day later, they came back and said, ‘Look, BOXXER have just come up with this money that we can’t [turn down] and he’s going to take it. We can’t not take it, and we’re like, what? We’ve just filmed a promo.

“I was gutted for a long time because, you see, with Ben Whittaker, people see the showmanship, people see the viral clips, the Instagram numbers. They don’t realize that for the last eight years, this guy has been one of the best on the amateur scene. Everybody knows — Rob McCracken [and] all those guys in the GB [Boxing] setup. He was phenomenal. He was an Olympic silver medalist, and he was devastated to win silver. Devastated. Most people thought he would win gold.

“I’m not signing Ben Whittaker just because he’s a huge name and he’s got a huge social media following,” Hearn continued. “I’m signing him to become world champion at light heavyweight and to be in those kinds of fights. Of course, Callum [Smith], [Anthony] Yarde, [and Joshua] Buatsi, but beyond that. That is the ability of this man. This isn’t like a social media sensation, this is an elite fighter. For two or three years, I’m watching him, and every time he does his [showboating], I’m like [disappointed I didn’t sign him]. Even my kids, my eldest daughter, talks about Ben Whittaker. She doesn’t even follow boxing. [She asked], ‘Have you got that Ben Whittaker?’ I’m like, ‘Well, umm, nearly.’

“I always say, until a fighter becomes available, it’s all hearsay. And when we got the call from his lawyers to say, ‘We’re ready. We’re free,’ a few weeks ago, or months ago, or whatever it was, we made a play. It wasn’t cheap, but I believe in him. And when I look at stars within certain markets, he’s right up there. He gets it. He gets it commercially. He’s done a great job self-promoting. His social media numbers are insane. But me, being the boxing fanatic, I’m signing him for what I believe he can be as a fighter, and that is an elite world champion.”

Whittaker will make his debut for Matchroom at the end of November in the UK against a top-15 opponent, Hearn revealed to Uncrowned. Whittaker has had just 10 fights in the four years since the Olympics due to repeated injuries and his recent promotional change. Hearn is planning two to three fights for Whittaker in quick succession to counter that.

Following Whittaker’s initial run of fights, Hearn hopes to match him with the top light heavyweights in Britain, including Smith, Buatsi and Yarde. Whittaker is ranked in the top 15 by three of the governing bodies already and so isn’t too far off a world title shot as well.

With Fury’s promoter, Warren, stating his belief that Fury will make his inevitable return to the ring in 2026, Fury vs. Joshua has never made more sense. Joshua is expected to fight again in late 2025 or early 2026, with Fury also expected to have a return bout in 2026. There is a genuine belief in the boxing fraternity that the pair will finally clash at some point after that next year.

“Everything’s about getting yourself into a position for the Tyson Fury fight,” Hearn said of Joshua’s plans.

“The reality is that Turki Alalshikh wants to make the biggest fights in the world. Fury-AJ, in my opinion, is the biggest fight in boxing right now, and Turki Alalshikh wants to make that fight. When I was with him last week, there were conversations about how a plan might look for AJ, and he will have a conversation with Tyson Fury. He’s not failed yet, Turki Alalshikh. One of his greatest legacies to the British fight fan would be [being] the guy that made Fury against AJ, and I’m very confident he can do so.”