Matchroom’s Frank Smith just recently caught up with iFL TV to discuss the state of the much discussed showdown between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. Despite contracts supposedly having been signed, there’s been on ongoing dilemma with regards to the venue for the fight, and with Dana White recently lashing out at Eddie Hearn, Smith shares some of his perspective on things.
Smith on Dana White accusing Eddie Hearn of trying to hurt the Joshua vs Fury fight
“Dana White is frustrated because Dana White has been trying to get his way into a fight that he has absolutely no involvement
with. And now it looks like it’s going to backfire on him, so now the only thing he can do is try and paint Eddie in a bad light by saying he’s doing harm to the fight.
“The reality is Anthony Joshua, Matchroom, we signed for the fight in the UK. We have a signed contract for the fight to take place, we’ve done everything we said we’d do. Dana’s frustration is about ‘it’s about making the most money for the fighters’ this, that and the other — it’s like, since when do you care about paying the fighters? You pay 17% of your revenue to UFC fighters.
“You care about yourself. And ultimately we’re in an ego-driven sport, where the reality is this is Dana’s ego because he said ‘I know where the fight is.’…And then what he’ll do, is when the fight gets announced as Timbuktu — just making up a location because I’m not going to say where it could be — but he’ll go ‘I knew it was in Timbuktu, I always knew, and I’m the promoter.’ You’re not.”
On his confidence level this all gets resolved and goes forward
“It’s been going on so long, but like all these questions of like ‘when are we going to get an announcement, when is this going to happen?’ — every time I’ve been asked that I’ve been going ‘it’s got to be in the next week.’ And we’re at a point where for this year we’re cutting very fine, aren’t we? You know, to promote a fight of that magnitude in the right manner, get it all together, takes a lot of work.
“I’ve always been confident about our position because our position was very clear…I’m hopeful we get to see it in the UK and I’m hopeful we get an announcement soon.”
