Eddie Hearn Mocks Dana White Following Absence from Fury vs Joshua Press Conference

Pulse Sports Team 08:49 - 01 October 2026

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua faced off for the first time on Wednesday following their official press conference in London. Nearly every major stakeholder for the highly anticipated clash was in attendance, with the notable exception of UFC CEO Dana White.

For months, White had been touted to co-promote the blockbuster boxing event. However, Matchroom Boxing head Eddie Hearn consistently pushed back, insisting that existing contractual agreements did not permit such involvement. After an ongoing war of words between the two promotional heavyweights, White's absence in the British capital handed Hearn an emphatic victory in their verbal feud.

"It was all complete nonsense," Hearn told The Stomping Ground. "The truth is that Turki Alalshikh is partners with Dana and Nick Khan. He wanted them involved in the promotion, but contractually that was impossible unless I gave the green light. Dana and the rest handled it completely the wrong way. I don't even need to rub it in, because what played out over the past week turned into one of the biggest PR disasters in boxing history."

Hearn added that his mixed martial arts counterparts should have taken an entirely different approach:

"Instead of all the bluster, they should have just said: 'We understand there's a contract preventing us from getting involved. We'll sit down with Eddie Hearn and Turki Alalshikh to discuss the options.' If they had given me a compelling reason to let them in and explained how it would benefit Anthony Joshua and Matchroom, we would have had a conversation."

With the bout officially confirmed for December 11 in Cardiff, Hearn stressed that his position was validated all along, dismissing the UFC boss's pre-event claims as completely off the mark.

"You can't go out to the world and claim you're promoting the event, that you know where it's taking place, and that it's going to be in America," Hearn asserted. "You claimed the fight would be in the United States, said you knew the venue, and stated an arena deal was already signed. None of that happened. You were wrong. We won this battle, but that's in the past now."

White had previously stated on the Contender Series that he would not be traveling to London due to scheduling conflicts with events in Las Vegas. Hearn dismissed the excuse with a laugh, arguing that White had plenty of time to fly in on a private jet and that the real reason for his absence was that he simply wasn't permitted to participate in the promotion.

"Nobody comes in and tries to push us around," the British promoter concluded. "A contract is a contract, and we enforce it strictly. Dana didn't show up because he simply wasn't allowed to. We won that fight, there are no issues, and we move forward."