UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has new representation and it’s none other than Eddie Hearn.
The stunning news was announced on Thursday after Aspinall teased he was getting “back to business” as he boarded a flight. It turns out, he was traveling to Monaco to ink a deal with Hearn to serve as his agent, which seemingly escalates the ongoing war the Matchroom Boxing chairman has engaged with UFC CEO Dana White after he launched Zuffa Boxing.
“Welcome to the team UFC heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall,”
Hearn wrote on Instagram. “Time to get what’s yours.”
The signing comes after Zuffa Boxing inked a lucrative one-fight deal with Conor Benn, who had been promoted by Hearn for almost his entire career. The deal was reportedly worth $15 million and Hearn later admitted that he was hurt and felt “massively betrayed” by the signing, especially after he found out via email from Benn’s attorney.
That led to a war of words with White through various interviews with the UFC CEO saying recently “is there a bigger p*ssy than Eddie Hearn?” after seeing his emotional response to losing Benn to Zuffa Boxing.
Hearn then fired back and said he had no regrets about saying he was upset by the whole ordeal and added that White and his team at Zuffa Boxing don’t “give a f*ck about the fighters.”
The back-and-forth continued with White actually saying he had no personal issues with Hearn and originally had no plans to go after him or Matchroom but then Hearn effectively issued a challenge, which led to Zuffa Boxing responding.
Now Hearn had fired his own salvo by signing Aspinall and representing him as an agent, which should make future negotiations with the UFC very interesting.
Aspinall hasn’t fought since this past October when his first title defense as undisputed heavyweight champion ended after he suffered a brutal eye poke in the opening round in his bout against Ciryl Gane. In the aftermath of that injury, Aspinall had double eye surgery and still hasn’t been cleared to return to action yet.
Obviously now Aspinall has Hearn in his corner when it comes time to negotiate his next fight with the UFC whenever that happens.
White hasn’t commented on the signing after the announcement was made on Thursday.
