Eddie Hearn spent Saturday night in Birmingham saying Dana White cannot promote or produce Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua, and that Sela confirmed it to him in writing.

He also said he will sit down with White in Los Angeles this coming week to talk about what involvement Zuffa Boxing and TKO might have in the event after all.

Both came out of the same post-fight media availability during Matchroom fight week, and together they describe a dispute that looks very different in public than it does in private.

On White’s claim that UFC will produce the broadcast, Hearn was flat.

“He said, ‘We are doing the TV production,’ which again in the contract is prohibited,” Hearn said. “I actually started to feel bad for him. I spoke to Sela and I said, ‘Have you seen this video?’ And they said, ‘Yes, it’s completely untrue.’ They told me that in writing. He cannot do that under the contract.” He added: “At this point I think he’s completely cooked.”

That contradicts what White said Thursday at the UFC 332 press conference in Salt Lake City. “Not only am I promoting the fight, we’re producing the fight too. UFC is gonna produce the show,” he said. “I don’t know how that’s a PR disaster. I’m right.” To MMA Fighting the same day: “Am I not producing the entire f***ing event? The answer is yes.”

It is the third function Hearn says Joshua’s contract bars, after promotion and the press conference. On the first of those the paperwork went his way. The British Boxing Board of Control confirmed to BoxingScene this week that the December 11 event will be promoted by Queensberry Promotions, Matchroom Boxing and Sela, with Zuffa not named. The Board also said Sela does not yet have the British licence-holder its rules require, and that discussions about who that will be are ongoing.

On production there is no public record either way. Sela has not commented at any point in this dispute, and Hearn’s account of what it put in writing is his description of a document nobody else has seen. Netflix has not revised its original wording and The Ring has never described White’s role at all.

Then came the meeting.

Hearn said he, White, Sela and Sela chief executive Dr. Rakan Alharthy are due in Los Angeles this week. Asked by iFL TV whether there is a way for White to be involved, he answered: “There’s always a deal to be cut.” Asked what the meeting is for, he said he did not know, perhaps to clear the air, perhaps to see whether Zuffa can be allowed to participate.

He had signalled it earlier in the week. “I’m going to sit down with Dana, Nick Khan and Turki Alalshikh over these coming days,” Hearn told The Ring. “And if there is a way that White can add value to this event, and it will benefit Anthony Joshua or Matchroom or both of us, preferably, we can talk.”

And he made clear the fight over the clause is not one he intends to keep having.

“Netflix and Turki Alalshikh would love Dana White involved. So therefore, this isn’t an ongoing battle that I’m going to fight for the next three months on this subject. I won.”

On the billing itself, which started all of this, he sounded almost indifferent. “This is Turki Alalshikh’s event. It’s promoted by Sela in association with AJ Boxing, Eddie Hearn, Matchroom, Queensberry Promotions, Gold Star and Tyson Fury, that’s it,” Hearn said. “If we want to add Dana White’s name on there so they can stream it on WWE.com, great. I’m not that bothered.”

Which is a long way from a man who spent ten days insisting the contract was the contract.

Nobody else on the British side fought about it at all. Frank Warren, whose company worked alongside Sela on the Cardiff venue deal according to Seconds Out, told the Guardian last weekend: “Let’s get on with it. Who cares about all this other rubbish? I don’t care if Dana White is sitting there. Who gives a monkeys.” Fury removed the Zuffa clause from his own contract and said he did it so White could be involved.

White has not said whether he will attend the Los Angeles meeting.

Fury vs. Joshua takes place Friday, December 11 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, live on Netflix. Tickets go on general sale Friday, October 9 at noon BST.