Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are finally slated to meet at the end of the year. And, you likely also know that the buzz and drama around this fight is being mostly generated by the squabbling between Dana White and Eddie Hearn.
These two have never gotten along, but their beef started sizzling when Joshua, who is aligned to Hearn, and Fury, who is aligned to Turki Alalshikh White, signed on the dotted line. Once that happened, a heavyweight pissing
contest began between Hearn and White to prove who was in control of the fight and stood to make the most out of it.
Recently, Hearn has insisted that contractual obligations mean that Whitecannot be involved in promoting the fight. White has taken every opportunity to tell us that this isn’t true and not something he would abide by.
This morning White further enforced his view that he was promoting this fight. At 7:01 AM ET he sent out a message on X announcing that tickets for Fury vs. Joshua would go on sale this Friday.
“Well, finally everybody…” White said, with a slight pause. “All the bullshit’s over. Fury vs. Joshua live from Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales on December 11. fury, twenty-six wins, twenty-five knockouts. AJ, thirty wins, twenty-seven knockouts. tickets are on sale this Friday… Fury vs. Joshua finally, tickets on sale. I’ll see you in Cardiff”
White’s 35 second video included some interesting B-roll footage. The grainy and likely not official licensed clips included Fury fighting Arslanbek Makhmudov, whom he beat by unanimous decision in April, and Joshua knocking out Jake Paul, whom he beat in 2025.
Jake Paul… the same Jake Paul whom White has sparred back and forth with almost as much as he has with Hearn. And the same Jake Paul who recently merged his MVP MMA promotion with PFL to gear up to challenge the supremacy of White’s UFC.
I wonder why White asked his assistant, not the one who was busy fighting on Contender Series I assume, to include that in his video?
White’s early morning announcement might have been a rush job intended to scoop Hearn. Hearn ended up making his announcement that tickets were on sale, but that came thirteen minutes later — at 7:14 AM ET.
This petty back-and-forth is great for us. It gives us no shortage of things to write about on sites like ours. It is starting to overshadow the fight itself, though. Fury and Joshua are past their prime, but this is the biggest fight anyone can make on the planet right now.
Hopefully the fight goes ahead this time, unlike when Fury botched the announcement on their first try by name-dropping a notorious, and alleged, organized crime figure. If and when this fight does happen, though, we’re sure to get an interesting spectacle between the ropes and also lots more fun and games between White and Hearn before during and likely after the fight.
