CARDIFF — Dana White has credited Eddie Hearn for ensuring Tyson Fury v Anthony Joshua will be staged in the UK, while insisting he is "bored" of their ongoing promotional feud. The long-awaited heavyweight bout will take place at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on a bill starting 11 December — with the main event expected in the early hours of 12 December — despite efforts to host it at Madison Square Garden in New York, and will be shown on Netflix.
"You've got to give credit to Eddie for really grinding that and making sure that it happened in the UK," UFC president and Zuffa Boxing chief White told Steve Bunce on the 5 Live Boxing with Bunce podcast. White and Saudi organisers had wanted the fight in the United States, but Joshua and Hearn refused to budge on their contractual right to stage it in the UK.
Doubts had surrounded the contest over White's role in the promotion. The fight has been presented as a collaboration between Saudi boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh's The Ring and White, after White launched Zuffa Boxing earlier this year. Hearn has been publicly feuding with White since that launch and said his involvement "ain't happening", while Fury and Joshua held a news conference on 30 September to ease concerns over the fight going ahead.
White was not present at that media event but insisted "me and my team will be producing the fight that night". He added: "I guess we'll call me one of the promoters of the event because you do have Frank Warren [Fury's promoter] and Eddie Hearn that are both promoters too, promoting the event." Hearn has repeatedly said White could not promote the bout, but this week suggested he was prepared to meet the American to discuss his involvement.
White said he was willing to meet Hearn but did not feel a sit-down was necessary. "I'm actually bored with this now. Who cares? This isn't about me and Eddie Hearn," White said. "It's about AJ and Fury. It's about this heavyweight fight. It's an Eddie show, not a Dana and Eddie show. It's boring now. This is about AJ and Fury. This was never the Dana and Eddie show. It's been all the Eddie show."