In reality, it was only a matter of time before Dana White dipped his toes in the boxing industry. Building UFC from the ground up into one of the most successful sports leagues in the world, White’s expertise in the combat sports business made him a fantastic candidate to be a boxing promoter eventually.
With help from Saudi power player Turki Alalshikh, White launched Zuffa Boxing in 2025. It wasn’t long before White got a big fish to fry, as Zuffa Boxing was the lead promoter for Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford’s September 2025 mega-fight. There have already been three Zuffa Boxing cards that have taken place this year, with a fourth one featuring Jai Opetaia up next in March.
White has wasted no time trying to become a powerful promoter in the sport of boxing. Unsurprisingly, that has led to some animosity from fellow boxing promoters. White’s latest move was perhaps the opening salvo in what is sure to be a longstanding war against Eddie Hearn, the CEO of Matchroom Boxing. In the middle of it all is Conor Benn.
Conor Benn ditches Eddie Hearn’s longstanding support for Dana White’s mone
y
On Friday, Benn signed with Zuffa Boxing in a shocking move. Benn was signed to Hearn’s Matchroom back in 2016, with Hearn sticking by the boxer through thick and thin; including his lengthy suspension. Tensions between White and Hearn were already rising due to recent comments from the UFC head honcho, where he said competing with boxing promoters was “like beating up babies” and dismissed Hearn as working for his father, Barry Hearn.
Following this Benn move, the rivalry between the two promoters is set to heat up even further. But Hearn is more annoyed by Benn than White scooping him up. Hearn recently spoke about Benn’s decision, and was stunned at the lack of “loyalty” on part of the boxer.
“I felt that everything that we gave him, the loyalty that we gave him, the support we gave him, would be enough to talk it through, or just get close to a number… I just feel that the way it was done was very, very wrong. But that’s just my opinion. And here, he might say, ‘Yeah, but it was a lot of money.’ But like I said, everyone’s different. Some people, loyalty really matters. Other people, maybe not so.“
This is surely just the beginning of what’s set to be an epic back-and-forth in the boxing industry between Zuffa Boxing and Matchroom Sport.
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