Eddie Hearn says Dana White overstepped his authority on the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury fight and was twice publicly corrected by Saudi financier Turki Alalshikh, describing the situation as White having his “bum smacked.”
Hearn spoke to IFLTV in New York ahead of the Jaron Ennis vs. Xander Zayas card.
After the Bournemouth show he went up at the press conference, when he was getting all zesty, and basically Zuffa posted all of his comments about him saying he’s promoting the event. He got his bum smacked by Turki Alalshikh and they had to delete all of their messages about him saying he’s promoting the event. So embarrassing. So, they had to delete all their comments saying they were promoting the show — bum slap number one. Bum slap number two: Tyson Fury went out to the White House and Dana White wants to come out and say he’s promoting Tyson Fury. Next thing, bum slap. Then all of a sudden Fury is posting that ‘my promoter is Turki Alalshikh.’ The bum is sore, the bum is raw.
Hearn also framed the power dynamic within Zuffa Boxing directly.
At the end of the day, Dana White has got to do whatever Turki Alalshikh tells him to do because, guess what, Turki Alalshikh, Sela, Saudis, they own Zuffa Boxing. So, Dana is just an employee, he’s got to do what he’s told. But his head has fallen off, he can’t deal with this kind of stuff. Fair play to Dana, he’s a competitor; he’s very stubborn; he will try and find a way now to get involved.
Hearn reiterated that Joshua’s existing contract specifies the fight must take place in the UK, meaning any US venue would require a renegotiation — which must go through Alalshikh.
If you want to do a new deal, yes, we’re open to offers. But I know what it says in our deal. We’ll talk to Turki Alalshikh and see what he wants to do.