Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua faced off for the first time on Wednesday following a press conference in London, and all the major players involved with the fight were front and center minus a potential appearance from UFC CEO Dana White.
In the months leading up to this matchup finally coming together, White was touted as a co-promoter on the card but his involvement was always disputed by Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn, who said contractually that just couldn’t happen. The back and forth continued
in a war of words between the two combat sports executives but White’s absence on Wednesday was all Hearn needed to take a victory lap to essentially say “I was right all along.”
“It’s a load of bollocks,” Hearn told The Stomping Ground after the press conference. “The thing is this Turki is partners with Dana and Nick Khan. He wants them involved in the event, contractually they can’t be unless I allow them to be [involved]. Now these guys, Dana, etc just played it all wrong. I’m not even going to sit here and slag it off because what’s happened to them over the last seven days has been one of the greatest PR disasters in boxing. I don’t even have to go in on them.
“What I would tell you and I don’t want to be condescending like some people are and tell you how to do things but all you had to do was say ‘we understand there is a contract in place that [prevents] us from being involved, we’re going to get together with Eddie Hearn and Turki Alalshikh and we’re going to discuss it.’ If you can tell me a reason that I should allow these people into the fight and it benefits Anthony Joshua and Matchroom, let’s chat.”
Hearn says nothing has ever really changed from his end of things because contractually he knew White wouldn’t actually be involved in the event no matter how much the UFC boss said otherwise.
Now that the event is a done deal and happening on Dec. 11 in Cardiff, England, Hearn is just doubling down that he was never wrong about what was happening while effectively calling White a liar from some of the things he’s said leading up to the fight.
“What you can’t do is sit up there and tell the world you’re promoting the event, you know where the fight’s taking place and the fight’s happening in America,” Hearn said. “As you said last night in your press conference, ‘tell me what I said wasn’t true.’ Well, there’s f*cking three things right there. You thought you had the fight in America. You told the world you knew where it was. You told the world you signed the venue contract. None of that materialized. You were wrong.
“But you made it a fight and I have to stand up for what [Anthony Joshua] wants but I also have to stand up for myself, the company, these people are coming to end everyone in boxing. So I had to let them know that we don’t play around. The fact is we won. We won but that’s over now.”
During Tuesday night’s episode of The Contender Series, White revealed that he wouldn’t be attending the press conference on Wednesday because of his appearance at the fights in Las Vegas.
Hearn couldn’t help but laugh at the idea that White couldn’t just jump on a private plane and make his way to London in time for the press conference. That said, Hearn is ready to get back to the business of boxing and put this entire episode behind him.
“Don’t think you can come and bulldoze me and us,” Hearn said. “Because it ain’t going to happen, especially when the contract is the contract and we don’t deviate from contracts. So the reason Dana didn’t come today is because he was not permitted today.”
“It’s embarrassing. The reality is his event last night, he could have got on his jet and come here — the press conference started at 7 p.m. — he would have made it easy. What I’m getting at that battle was won by us. No problem, we move on.”
