Hearn has been critical of the perceived plans for Zuffa Boxing, which have mooted them running their own Zuffa titles, and potentially even changing some of the dynamics of the sport for their events. But while none of these changes are officially confirmed at this stage, Hearn is ready to take boxing to the next level as he prepares Matchroom Boxing for a huge year in 2026.
Chatting to The Stomping Ground, Hearn spoke about his respect for UFC President and CEO White, but while he said he had a good relationship with the UFC boss, he said that he’ll defend his turf from White, who will become a promotional rival to Hearn once Zuffa Boxing gets officially underway in 2026.
“I heard he said that I went all Oscar De La Hoya criticizing him. I mean, not at all,” Hearn said.
“I find it difficult to find an interview where I’ve ever criticized Dana White. I mean, I respect the guy. We’ve got a decent friendship. He’s always been very good to me, and I’ll always talk about the quality of his business and also the quality of him as a promoter.
“When he comes out and says things like, ‘We’re going to take over boxing, I’m going to be the CEO… obviously, what do you expect me to do? Roll over like a puppy and let him tickle my belly? No, we’re going to war.
“Because you’re coming into my market. You’re coming into my business where I believe I’m number one, and you’re telling me you’re going to be number one. So it’s a shootout, it’s a fight.
“There’ll be no nastiness. I’m not going to talk about him negatively or personally, or anything like that – I’m up for the fight. People are talking about it, and almost like the perception of this, Eddie vs Dana war in boxing. Great! I mean, that’s great for the sport.”
Clearly, Hearn is relishing the prospect of going toe-to-toe with the UFC supremo in the boxing world, and while he firmly believes he has the edge in a head-to-head battle in boxing, Hearn did say that he expects Zuffa Boxing to be successfull, just not at the level at which Matchroom Boxing operates.
“It’s not going to fail, right? They’re too smart for it to fail, but it’s (a question of) how can it do? And with what I’ve heard so far, I have absolutely no fear, no problem that is going to affect our business in the slightest,” Hearn suggested.
“In fact, what it’s going to do is allow me to step up my game. This is all great for the ecosystem of boxing. I’m looking at my schedule now from January. It’s going to be better than I’ve ever done on DAZN before.
“They’ve got the bit between their teeth. Of course, you’ve got a new player in town, right? We need to be stronger. We need to be better. We need to sign better fighters. We need to be making the unifications, the big fights, because we’re all about the product of championship boxing, and everyone’s well, up for it. And actually, it’s great, you know?
“It’s not, ‘Let’s f**k Dana.’ It’s just, this is exciting. You know, we’ve all got a little bit of a tingling in our nuts to say, ‘This is what we want to be. We want to be in the trenches. We want to be in the firing line in this battle with someone like TKO.’ And we’re well up for it.”
And that competitive, combative approach has led Hearn to issue a rallying cry to the big names in boxing to return the sport to its former glory, by collaborating where necessary to ensure the biggest fights take place to give the fans exactly what they want from the sport.
“What I want to do is I want to make boxing great again,” he said.
“I have started my own WhatsApp group with our matchmaking team, which is, ‘Make Boxing Great Again.’ And that is what I go into 2026 saying, ‘If you want to come up and switch up boxing, f**k you, because I ain’t doing it.’
“We’re gonna show you how great boxing is in 2026. Who’s with me? Top Rank, you with me? Oscar (De La Hoya), you with me? But it’s not a case of ‘Oh, let’s gang up.’ We don’t need to gang up. We just need to make the fights. We’ve got the product. We’ve got the greatest sport in the world, so let’s make boxing great again.”
