Eddie Hearn Claims Zuffa Was ‘Bullied’ Into Co-Promotion

“I mean, he was bullied into it really. They had no choice,” Hearn said to Fighthype when asked about Zuffa working with Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions. “Do you think Dana White would have voluntarily said, ‘Let’s do a co-promotion with Oscar De La Hoya?’ I mean he can’t stand him.”

Hearn said that Zuffa entered boxing promising to avoid co-promotions and world title sanctioning bodies, but says reality quickly forced a different approach.

“But this is how boxing works. Sometimes you don’t get like in an ideal world probably we wouldn’t do co-promotions with anybody because you’d rather just do it on your own. But boxing doesn’t work like that. It’s never worked like that,” Hearn said.

He also pointed to the WBC’s involvement in Garcia’s September 12 welterweight title defense against Benn, saying Zuffa underestimated the importance of established organizations.

“They said they’re not doing any world championship fights. In fact, Nick Khan stood on the stand to try and abolish the Muhammad Ali Act and belittle Mauricio Sulaiman,” Hearn said. “Well, guess what? On September the 12th, Mauricio Sulaiman will be in the ring on their show, and they’ll all have to pay homage to the WBC championship because you can’t just get rid of these things.”

Hearn closed by arguing that the Garcia-Benn promotion illustrates the fundamental difference between boxing and mixed martial arts.

“No one’s going to lay down,” Hearn said. “Oscar De La Hoya was going to let Ryan Garcia just poodle on over to do a Zuffa show? No chance. They’re control freaks, and you can’t control boxing.”