Dana White has responded to Eddie Hearns comments on the Zuffa Belt as the back and forth continues to get more and more personal.
The promoter back and forth between Dana White and Eddie Hearn continues.
Zuffa Boxing’s third show was last night at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas.
The main event was by far their highest profile so far.
Efe Ajagba (21-1-1, 15ko’s) defeated Charles Martin (30-5-1, 27ko’s) via 4th round TKO in a dominant performance.
The event also saw a highlight reel knockout on the undercard.
Umar Dzambekov (14-0, 10ko’s) defeated Ahmed Elbiali (24-2, 19ko’s) with an early knockout of the year contender.
Since Dana White and TKO’s entrance into the sport, they have received extreme backlash from existing and established entities in the sport.
White and Zuffa boxing have declared that boxing is broken and that their methods will fix the sport.
They plan to replicate a model that they have had so much success with in Mixed Martial Arts with the UFC.
Zuffa boxing plan to disregard the current four recognised governing bodies, the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF and will only recognise the Ring Magazine and their self-created Zuffa boxing belt.
The first Zuffa belt world title fight is set to be star signing Jai Opetaia (29-0, 23ko’s) vs Brandon Glanton (21-3, 18ko’s) for the cruiserweight title.
Opetaia was previously signed with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing.
The Australian has been chasing unification fights in the division for a number of years now.
Signing with Zuffa who plan to disregard the four belts does pose questions surrounding the alignment of strategy between Opetaia and Zuffa.
Eddie Hearn has vocalised his beliefs that the Zuffa belt is ‘cringe’ and that top level fighters want to fight for legacy defining belts.
White responded to these comments in the post event press conference yesterday.
White stated that: “I expected some more pushback, to be more game (from Hearn)”.
“You’ve done nothing but play by the rules”.
“Eddie Hearn works for his Dad”.
“I don’t think he’s ever had this type of vision, but we do”.
“Eddie Hearn and his Dad have a lot of money, they can still do their thing, I’m going to do my thing”.
“They can’t do compete because they don’t know how to compete”.
Want to get the latest boxing news direct to your phone? Join our WhatsApp community by clicking here.
