Eddie Hearn to Dana White ahead of Zuffa Boxing’s first event: ‘You’re not gonna come into boxing and steamroll the game’

UFC President Dana White’s first boxing event, which he has promoted under the TKO banner under his Zuffa Boxing brand, is set to be held on Saturday, headlined by the highly anticipated super fight between Canelo Álvarez and Terence Crawford. But prior to the event, White received a clear warning from fellow boxing promoter Eddie Hearn about venturing into boxing promotion.

Speaking about White during an appearance on The Stomping Ground podcast, Eddie Hearn, the chairman of Matchroom Sport, relished the idea of going head-to-head in the boxing promotion space against White, particularly because White is seemingly trying to implement big changes to the sport of boxing.

“They are trying to get the Muhammad Ali Act changed,” said Hearn. “We’ve seen that. Listen, what I will tell you is you aren’t gonna see me slagging off Dana White. Not because I don’t want to upset him. Because I respect him, I have a good relationship with him. The one thing I would really like at this point in my career is to go head-to-head and to take him on. I want to compete against Dana White. I want to prove that I am much better than him as a boxing promoter. I am excited for him to come into the space.

“That doesn’t mean we are going to fall out, by the way. Competition is fantastic. But you are not going to come into boxing and steamroll the game. It’s just not gonna happen. We can work together. But ultimately, it depends on how they are going to maneuver. Everybody is a competitor to us in the sport. But a lot of those competitors are friends. And a lot of those competitors we work with for the benefit of out business, our fighters, and the sport. That hopefully will be the same with Dana.”

The message is quite clear from Hearn. Should White attempt to make full-fledged changes to the integrity of the sport, Hearn will certainly have something to say about it.

Hearn is far from the only one speaking about White and TKO seemingly attempting to amend the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act by circumventing the existing sanctioning bodies by creating a new category, the Unified Boxing Organization.

On Thursday, during the pre-fight press conference prior to Saturday’s Crawford-Alvarez fight, a reporter covering the event pressed White on the potential changes TKO is attempting to make to the Act. And instead of speaking on the matter, White largely dodged his questions, instead asking the reporter to conduct a 1-on-1 interview with him.

Additionally, prominent boxers have warned White in the past about trying to make any adjustments to fighter pay, which has, of course, been an issue in the UFC for quite some time now. In particular, WBC Lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson made it clear that he and potentially other fighters would choose not to have future fights promoted by Zuffa Boxing should changes be made to the pay structure under the Zuffa banner.