Hearn challenges Dana White to release Tom Aspinall from UFC contract with pay guarantee

Eddie Hearn has issued a direct challenge to Dana White, calling on the UFC CEO to release heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall from his contract and promising to guarantee the fighter at least three times his current UFC salary in writing.

The Matchroom boss made the proposal in an interview with iFL TV, framing it as a deliberate echo of White’s own words when Conor Benn signed with Zuffa Boxing. White had said at the time that Hearn “should want fighters to earn as much as possible” and should be happy for Benn’s reported $15 million single-bout deal. Hearn is now turning that logic back on White.

“I would like Dana White to release Tom Aspinall from his UFC contract, and I will guarantee Dana White, in writing, that I will pay Tom Aspinall a minimum — probably five times more — but a minimum of three times more what Dana White is paying him,” Hearn said. “I think for a hardworking, working class man that deserves every penny he can get because of what he puts his body through, Dana White should be happy for Tom Aspinall to receive that deal.”

Hearn described Aspinall as “one of the worst, most grossly underpaid athletes I have ever seen in the commercial world of sports,” and characterised the UFC’s handling of the fighter’s career as a mishandling. Aspinall, who was elevated to undisputed heavyweight champion in 2025, spent an extended period lobbying for a fight with Jon Jones that never came to fruition before eventually facing Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 in October.

Aspinall is currently sidelined with eye injuries sustained in that Gane bout, adding another chapter to what Hearn views as a frustrating run of inactivity and undercompensation for the champion. Aspinall has a management contract with Hearn’s Matchroom Talent Agency, giving the promoter a direct stake in the fighter’s commercial future.

The challenge is the latest escalation in an increasingly personal feud between Hearn and White, one that had at one point spilled into talk of the two men fighting each other — a prospect White has since walked back, to Hearn’s stated disappointment. With Zuffa Boxing positioning itself as a rival force in combat sports and Matchroom defending its turf, Aspinall and Benn have become the two most visible flashpoints in the boardroom battle between the sport’s biggest promotional names.