Hearn Says Dana White Is “Completely Cooked.” White Says “I’ll See You in Wales.”

Dana White answered Eddie Hearn at a UFC press conference on Saturday night, and did not give an inch.

“I don’t care. I’ll be there. I’m producing it. I’m promoting it,” White said, asked again about the feud with Joshua’s promoter. “I’ll see you in Wales.”

It came hours after Hearn, speaking during Matchroom fight week in Birmingham, said White is barred from doing either and that he had it from Sela in writing.

“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.”

White had made the production claim on 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, after explaining that Contender Series commitments kept him from the London launch. “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.”

Production is the third function Hearn says Joshua’s contract bars, after promotion and attendance at the press conference.

On the first of those, the paperwork went Hearn’s 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 Boxing not named. The Board also said Sela, headquartered in Saudi Arabia, 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 the wording of its original announcement. The Ring has never described White’s role at all.

What makes the exchange stranger is that the two men are due to sit down together within days.

Hearn said he, White and Sela chief executive Dr. Rakan Alharthy are meeting in Los Angeles this week to discuss what involvement Zuffa and TKO might have in the event. Asked by iFL TV whether there is a way for White to be included, Hearn answered: “There’s always a deal to be cut.” Asked what the meeting is actually 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.”

He also made clear he has no appetite for continuing the argument. “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.”

And on the billing that started all of this, he sounded close to 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.”

Nobody else on the British side fought about it at all. Frank Warren, whose company worked alongside Sela on the Cardiff venue agreement 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.

So the position this morning is unchanged from ten days ago, with one addition. White says he is promoting, producing and attending. Hearn says the contract forbids the first two and that he has already won the argument. The Board has named three promoters and Zuffa is not among them. And the two of them are scheduled to be in a room together in Los Angeles within the week.

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.