Dana White and Co 'won't be able to lace my boots in boxing promotion', claims Eddie Hearn after taking swipe at UFC for lack of superstars

Daily Mail​

30-04-2025

Eddie Hearn has shot down Dana White 's prospects in boxing promotion, insisting he and his wrestling pals wouldn't be able to 'lace his boots'.
The Matchroom Boxing chief will have fresh competition from the owners of the UFC and WWE when they launch a new boxing league.
In March, TKO Group Holdings announced a multi-year deal with Saudi boxing mastermind Turki Al-Sheikh and the nation's entertainment company Sela to form a league in the Middle East.
According to Boxing Scene, fees will range from $20,000 (£15,000) to up to $750,000 (£560,000) - numbers which depend on a boxer's ranking and what they are fighting for. The idea is to focus on younger, lesser-know stars.
But Hearn thinks UFC CEO White and WWE president Nick Khan will be nothing to fear.
'I think Dana coming into boxing is going to be brilliant for boxing,' he told the Ariel Helwani Show. 'If you back yourself — those guys, in my opinion, won't be able to lace my boots in boxing promotion.
'As a business, as an organisation, as [the] UFC — unbelievable. But this is different. When you go to sleep as a boxing promoter [and] you wake up in the morning, nothing is ever the same. You have to sleep with one eye open every single night.
'If you think you're going to control this world, which is what they really have done in MMA — and I think that's a similar model they'll try and bring into boxing — I don't think it's possible.
'It's going to be interesting how it's all positioned. I don't really think it will infiltrate the boxing world just yet. I think they're going to come in, create this league, young prospects, some guys that are ready for 50-50s and guys that [are at that level].
'We had a situation the other day where we had a fight that was fourth on the card, and it was a B-side fighter, and they said, "Oh, I'm not going to be available for this fight now because I'm signed with TKO." And I'm like, with all due respect, I don't mean to be rude, "You?!"
'Dana is a great guy. He's very intelligent, the [UFC] business is an incredible business. They're not going to come in and fail, in my opinion. But it's just the size of what they do and achieve that's going to be very interesting. I'll be honest, I don't really fear it.
'It doesn't matter who's involved. You've still got to come up and beat the system [and beat] the opposition. If you think that people like me, people like [Golden Boy's] Oscar De La Hoya, people like [Top Rank's] Bob Arum, people like [Queensberry's] Frank Warren are going to roll over and go, "It's been a great run, hasn't it? TKO is here now" — no, no, it ain't going to go down like that.'
Matchroom are in the corner of some of the boxing world's biggest names including Anthony Joshua and Dmitry Bivol.
In his league, White wants a UFC-style model where fighters must prove themselves against top contenders to hold unified championship belts, addressing the current complexities arising from multiple sanctioning bodies.
Hearn doesn't think it is possible to bring the wrestling model into the world of boxing
In the UFC fighters are ranked in various weight classes, and championship titles are determined by a clear and straightforward progression based on performance and rankings.
Speaking to The Ring Magazine about how the new promotion will operate and differ from the current format, White said: 'The best will fight the best. There is zero speculation about the format. You know the format, everyone knows the format, the best will fight the best.
'You work your way up the rankings and once somebody breaks into the top five, there will be no question who the best five guys in the world are in each weight class and they fight it out.
'Once somebody holds that belt, you don't need three letters in front of the belt; whoever has that belt is the best in the world at that weight class. It's a very simple model.'
Hearn, 45, an experienced head in the game, also fired shots at the UFC's model.
'If you said to me now, name me six UFC superstars, I couldn't do it,' he said.
'I could give you the ones that seem to keep losing a bit and then just comes back. But what's that, just a period with Khabib (Nurmagomedov) and Conor (McGregor), like those kinds.
'For me, in boxing, yes, Matchroom Boxing is a brand, and Top Rank is a brand, but the brand is the fighters, and they have their own individual brands, and you want that to resonate with the fanbase.
'I always say to a fighter when we've got to build their profile, I don't want you to be fake. Be yourself, and it's up to us as the promoter to build you as a brand, because that's how the fanbase tunes in.
'"Yeah, I know Conor Benn, he's the destroyer. Eubank (Jr), he's the guy that walks around with his dad, AJ (Anthony Joshua) is a clean cut guy, Tyson Fury is just this character that's out there."
'They're the characters and it's like WWE without the script. The problem is with UFC, I feel like they always want their brand to be bigger than that of the fighter, and when a star like Conor McGregor comes around, everything changes, and I don't think they really like that.'