Eddie Hearn is not moving on Dana White.
Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury signed for a fight in the United Kingdom. Organizers now want it at Madison Square Garden on November 20, which meant Matchroom had to send a contractual addendum covering the switch. One line from the original deal has not changed. White and the wider TKO Group, which owns Zuffa Boxing and WWE, are barred from any involvement.
Hearn was asked in Dublin at the Katie Taylor and Flora Pili press conference whether the new terms open a door for White.
No or else there will be no fight and we’ll just keep going.
He says the clause is not his.
You have to understand, right, AJ is one of my closest friends, AJ is a shareholder of Matchroom. So I know the narrative run by Tyson Fury is ‘oh Eddie’s ego’. No, no, no. We are a team and AJ will say to me ‘why are they involved?’ I said ‘Exactly, so are you ok with them not being involved?’ He says ‘yeah’.
So the responses in the addendum are not ‘Eddie Hearn’s wishes’, they’re Anthony Joshua’s wishes. So why would we [allow White to promote it]? None of it makes sense. And by the way, Dana can’t help himself.
White said last month that he had already done the venue and broadcast deals for the show, with the addendum still outstanding.
Hearn does not deny there is ego in it. He has been at odds with White and TKO president Nick Khan for a while.
The problem is that [White] can’t help himself. If he wants to reach out and talk to me then maybe we can have a chat. But he goes to the presser and goes ‘wait and see’. I just watch that and go ‘—- good luck to you, we’ll see’.
He says the ban did not need restating because it was never removed.
The addendum doesn’t have to include ‘still no Dana’ because that is in the original contract, the addendum is just changes. But we will say to them ‘just to confirm, as per the contract, no Zuffa or TKO involvement. We don’t need it. It’s Turki Alalshikh’s fight, you’ve got Queensberry and Gold Star and if it’s in America Top Rank also have to be involved [on Fury’s end], then you’ve got Anthony Joshua and Matchroom. That’s it.’
White is not the only sticking point. Matchroom wants Sela producing rather than Zuffa Boxing, compensation for the tax hit Joshua takes fighting in America, the outstanding purse from his July knockout of Kristian Prenga, and guarantees on tickets, security and travel. Turki Alalshikh had not responded to the addendum as of last week, and Hearn maintains the signed contract still puts the fight in Britain.
