Eddie Hearn has delivered his sharpest take yet of Zuffa Boxing, telling The Ariel Helwani Show that five months into Dana White’s boxing venture, the promotion has produced nothing worth pointing to and may have already committed one of the worst deals in recent boxing history.
“These guys are very powerful and smart, but I actually don’t think they know what they’re doing,” Hearn said. “The more I look at it, I’m not sure there even is a strategy. It’s kind of like ‘sign who you can sign and then go from there.'”
The centerpiece of Hearn’s criticism was the reported Conor Benn deal. According to reports, Zuffa paid $15 million for Benn’s 10-round fight against Regis Prograis on the Fury-Makhmudov Netflix card, with no future options attached. Matchroom is demanding full financial disclosure to confirm the figure, but Hearn was unsparing in his assessment if the number is accurate.
“If you want to get sucked into the fact that someone would pay $15 million for a 10-round fight where it’s probably worth a million dollars, and have no future options, no deal in place, you are probably the biggest idiot on the planet,” he said. He called it potentially “one of the worst pieces of business” in boxing and expressed disbelief that no senior Zuffa executives attended the fight or visited the changing room despite the scale of the investment. “You must have some serious money if you’re just willing to spunk 15 million up the wall in a 10-round fight and not even send anybody to try and secure that deal,” Hearn said.
Beyond the Benn situation, Hearn challenged anyone to name a genuinely impressive Zuffa show since the promotion launched. He pointed to small crowds, inconsistent scheduling, and underwhelming matchups as evidence that the execution has not matched the ambition. He also questioned the status of the boxing league concept Zuffa initially promoted, noting that governing bodies are already calling mandatories that complicate the model. While acknowledging that the roster includes legitimate names like Richardson Hitchins and Edgar Berlanga, Hearn argued the shows themselves have not reflected the promotional firepower behind them.
“If I did those shows I would get screamed out of town by five fans,” he said. “‘What is this? There’s 150 people here in this room. Who are these people? What are these fights?'”
