Hearn dismisses White as 'completely cooked' in escalating Fury vs. Joshua promoter war

Eddie Hearn has flatly rejected Dana White’s assertion that the UFC will produce Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua, releasing a video compilation of White’s past comments and stating that the Saudi backers SELA have confirmed in writing that such involvement is barred by contract.

The feud between the two promoters has intensified in the weeks since the December 11 Cardiff bout was finalised. White claimed his team — the same crew that handled Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford — would run the Netflix broadcast, naming producer Craig Borsari and asserting he would be ringside with his phone on the table just as he is at UFC events. Hearn, speaking at a press conference on Saturday, was dismissive.

“To be honest with you at this point, I think he’s completely cooked,” Hearn said. “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 video by the way, I actually started to feel bad for him. I woke up to all that and I just dropped the video.”

Hearn added that he went directly to SELA after White’s comments and received a swift rebuttal. “I went to SELA and they confirmed in writing absolute bollocks,” he told IFL TV. “I’m like this guy has absolutely lost the plot.”

Despite the sharp language, Hearn offered a backhanded compliment to his American counterpart. “He cannot do that under the contract. I actually admire him because rather than going ‘listen, fair play, Hearn’s had me by the short and curlies’ — no, he just won’t give up. I quite respect it and admire it because the front on him is unbelievable.”

White, speaking at the UFC 332 post-fight press conference, showed little interest in de-escalating. He repeated his position without elaboration, insisting his team will be in Wales and that the arrangement mirrors the Canelo-Crawford production setup. He did not respond directly to Hearn’s latest comments.

With the fight still roughly two months away, the dispute over who controls the event’s production remains unresolved publicly, even as both sides claim the contract supports their version of events. Whether the disagreement spills into the build-up for Fury and Joshua — both of whom have their own promotional stakes in the bout — remains to be seen.