Hot on the heels of Eddie Hearn signing Tom Aspinall to a management deal, the Matchroom Boxing head says he expects to pick up more UFC fighters and suggests a ‘revolution’ could be coming to the sport of MMA.
Sure, this all looks like UFC fighters being used as pawns in a boxing war between Hearn and UFC CEO turned Zuffa Boxing head Dana White. But it’s been a while since anyone has given Aspinall the love even a pawn gets, as proven by Hearn’s big London press conference for Tom which was packed
to the gills with U.K. press.
We’re sure Aspinall will be maximizing his sponsorship deals and business opportunities under Hearn’s ‘commercial advisory role.’ The bigger question, though, is whether Hearn is going to try and negotiate a bigger purse for the UFC heavyweight champion when he’s finally ready to return from double eye surgery. Hearn has certainly been vocal about how little Aspinall makes compared to some of his boxing clients.
“I come from a world where, if a fighter was generating that much revenue into a show, they would be making five, six, seven times more than they’re making in those UFC contracts,” Hearn said on the Ariel Helwani Show. “Tom Aspinall headlined O2 Arena and they actually broke records for the gate at the O2 Arena. It was on pay-per-view in the UK. It was on ESPN at the time in America.”
“He’s making less money than probably half the amount of money that I would pay a guy to fight for the British title at York Hall, Bethnal Green, in front of 1200 people.”
Hearn’s sudden interest in the MMA world is not altruistic. As UFC parent company TKO tries to take over boxing with Zuffa, Hearn is clearly attempting to get behind enemy lines and blow up UFC fighter pay. And he’s doing it with the $15 million one-fight deal Zuffa paid his former fighter Conor Benn to defect.
“I just can’t see a world now, especially with [TKO] in boxing and they’ll be paying Conor Benn ten to fifteen times more than the UFC heavyweight champion. They’re going in with a rights fee of tens of millions from Paramount, a gate of $10 million or a site fee of $20 or $30 million, [and UFC fighters are] making 10 times less … They’re going to have big problems in that respect.”
Hearn claims he’s already gotten interest from more UFC fighters and is clearly planning something big.
“We’ve had a dozen fighters approach us from the UFC asking to speak to us, have representation,” Hearn said. “Could we just educate them a little bit about the space, what’s going on. ‘We need some help.’ We’re not going to sign all those guys, but we will be signing a handful more of UFC fighters, no doubt about it, because it’s an interesting space for us.”
“Probably for the first time in my career, and this was very much the case with the Tom Aspinall stuff, I’m going to work in some silence,” he concluded. “Because I need to get this right, and it’s going to be very, very interesting what’s about to unfold over the next couple of months.”
“Right now I look at the landscape, going, ‘This is crazy, what I’m seeing.’ It’s almost like a revolution, and it’s going to be really interesting.”
