‘He’s completely cooked’: Eddie Hearn revels as Dana White refuses to back down over Fury-Joshua
Dana White and Eddie Hearn still seem unable to see eye-to-eye when it comes to the terms around December’s anticipated Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua boxing match.
White was in Salt Lake City on Saturday for UFC 332, where Natalia Silva was crowned as the new UFC women’s flyweight champion. Earlier in the day, however, Matchroom’s Hearn spoke at a press conference in Birmingham following Ben Whittaker’s IBF final eliminator win over Conor Wallace, and addressed White’s latest claims that he’s still promoting and producing the Fury vs. Joshua fight for the Netflix broadcast.
Hearn’s comments came just one day after he posted a since-viral compilation video of White offering a variety of confused and contradictory answers about the bout.
Gonna leave this one here 🫳 🎤
Time to move on to the big stuff. 10 weeks today the biggest fight in British boxing history! Let’s gooooo #FuryJoshua 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/tesKUojgPJ
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) October 2, 2026
"To be honest with you, at this point, I think he’s just completely cooked,” Hearn said Saturday of the UFC boss. “What he actually said was, ‘We are doing the TV production,’ which, again, in the contract is prohibited.”
"I wasn’t going to drop that [compilation] video, by the way, because I thought, ‘You know what? I’ll leave it now.’ I actually started to feel bad for him,” Hearn added. “Then I woke up to [White’s defiant response] and thought I’ll just drop the video. After that video, I spoke to SELA, and I said, ‘Have you seen [White’s comments]?’ And they said, ‘Yes, and it’s completely untrue.’ They told me that in writing. He cannot do that under the contract."
🚨 DANA WHITE WILL NOT BE PRODUCING FURY-JOSHUA EITHER
👀 Eddie Hearn responds to Dana White: "He said, ‘We are doing the TV production,’ which again in the contract is prohibited. I actually started to feel bad for him. I spoke to SELA and I said, ‘Have you seen this video?’… pic.twitter.com/tR8OCWWQfr
— EverythingBoxing | Darshan Desai (@EverythingBoxi2) October 4, 2026
Unsurprisingly, White continued to double down when asked about Hearn’s latest claims at UFC 332’s post-fight press conference.
Despite missing Wednesday’s launch press conference for Fury vs. Joshua, which White claimed was because of his obligation to attend UFC’s Contender Series on Tuesday, he reiterated that he will be in attendance in Cardiff on Dec. 11 and working the fight.
“I will be there,” White insisted. “We’re producing the show. Just like ‘Canelo’ [Alvarez vs. Terence] Crawford [in September 2025], same thing. Craig Borsari, Zach [Candito], my whole team — we will be producing the show. I will have my little phone on the table, just like tonight and every other night and every other show that I produce.”
The promoter rivalry between White and Hearn has rapidly intensified throughout 2026, heightened by White’s involvement with TKO’s Zuffa Boxing and the ongoing feud over Fury vs. Joshua. Although they’ve traded countless insults through the media, Hearn is starting to be impressed by White’s insistence on his role in Fury vs. Joshua.
"I’ve gotta actually admire him,” Hearn said, “because rather than just going, ‘Listen, fair play. Hearn’s had me by the short and curlies.’ Actually, there’s not many of those, but he goes, ‘No!’ And he just won’t give up. So I’ve got to quite respect and admire it, because the front on him is unbelievable. But they want me to meet them in LA next week, which I probably will.
“It could be to clear the air. It could be, ‘What are we going to do? Are we going to keep doing this?’ Ultimately, and I don’t mean to sound arrogant, [White] cannot be involved in the fight unless myself and Anthony allow them to be. And they seem to be very desperate to be involved in the fight, and Turki [Alalshikh] wants them to be involved in the fight, and so do Netflix. And I get, like, it’s great for the promotion. So I’m not against it — I just want you to tell me and explain why. Why should I? What’s in it for Anthony? What’s in it for us? And once we establish that, we can make a decision.”
As for White, that tentative meeting in Los Angeles with Hearn appeared to be news to the UFC boss, who nonetheless continued to stand firm on his claims.
"I haven’t heard anything about any meetings next week,” White said. “Between who? What do I need to meet about? I answered this whole question. It’s the same as it’s been since however long we’ve been talking about this.
"I hear nothing until you guys say it to me in press conferences. I don’t care [who did the deal]. I’ll be there. I’m producing it. I’m promoting it. I’ll see you in Wales.”
Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.