Keen-eyed fans may have noticed that Dana White was not at today’s launch press conference for the December 11 fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, despite repeatedly saying that he would be the promoter of the fight.
When Michael Buffer listed off the promoters for the event — of which there are several — neither White nor Zuffa Boxing were named.
Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn says that he felt he had to stand his ground in his latest spat with White, and feels that he came out the clear winner.
“I needed to win this battle”
Hearn said that he felt Max Kellerman, “who was fed a line,” in Hearn’s words, explained things well on a Zuffa broadcast on Saturday when he said that White was “working in a personal capacity with Turki Alalshikh on the event.”
Hearn then paused, and started poking at White.
“I’m trying to be diplomatic, because I think you should always be humble in victory,” Hearn told iFL TV. “So I could sit here right now and I could say, ‘Oh, promoting a show are you? Where are you at the launch press conference?’ Or I could say, ‘You know where the venue was? Did you, though?’ Or I could say, ‘The fight’s taking place in America, like you told everybody?’ These are all things that (White) told people that didn’t happen.
“To be honest, I kind of feel like they’ve done the job for me, especially after (last) Saturday. So what I’m going to do at this point is say, we won. We’re gonna park it over there. I’m not gonna wind anybody up too badly. And I’ve agreed with Turki Alalshikh that we will talk over the next few weeks, if we feel that there’s a benefit and a role for Dana to be involved.
“As you’ll hear today, the event is promoted by Sela, in association with Matchroom Boxing, Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua, Gold Star, and Queensberry. That’s it. If we want to add Dana White to that list — honestly, like, I had to do my job, and I had to stand up for what I believed was right. And I guess from an ego point of view, I needed to win this battle. But I won it, and it’s done, and now we can move forward. But I had to make my point, I had to stand my ground, for many different reasons.
“But the main reason being, we needed this fight in the UK. When people said, ‘Oh, this fight looks like it’s going to fall through, and it’s all because of his ego with Dana White.’ It actually wasn’t. There was multiple problems that we had. But this was just the battle that I had to win. But I also understand that Turki Alalshikh is the principal reason this fight is happening, and Turki Alalshikh is business partners with Dana White, and Turki Alalshikh would like Dana White to be involved in the fight.
“So we’ll talk, and I’m not ruling out that we will allow him to be involved in some capacity. Is he the promoter of the fight? Absolutely not. Proven. Won’t be. And that’s just fact. Will he be part of a team of people working on the event? Yeah, maybe. I think he can add value. But for me, that episode is dealt with. There will be loads of ongoing battles with Matchroom and Zuffa.
“I’m gonna do my best to avoid the smugness, and just say, ‘We won. Chapter closed. Let’s move forward.’”
“A big old set of bollocks”
“We were ready to walk away from the fight for many more serious reasons than that, but this was, like, a principle matter,” Hearn said.
“At the end of the day, Anthony wanted the contract to be honored. Anthony wanted this fight to be in the UK more than anything. There were three or four things that were putting this fight in jeopardy. The Dana White situation was not the most serious of those.
“And actually, once we dealt with the Dana White situation, which we did a day or so ago, we just had to get the more serious stuff over there, and then we were good. The Dana White thing wasn’t actually the thing holding the fight up.
“Were we willing to walk away from the fight? We didn’t get to that position because I dealt with it. And I dealt with it by having a strong contract, a big old set of bollocks, and a great friend and client in Anthony Joshua.”
