Eddie Hearn jokes he is ‘totally finished’ after UFC boss Dana White enters boxing with Turki Alsheikh
EDDIE HEARN joked that he is “totally finished” now Dana White has entered the boxing business with Turki Alsheikh.
UFC boss White and Saudi supremo Alsheikh finally announced their long rumoured boxing venture together.
It will be spearheaded by the TKO group that owns and controls the UFC and WWE – and now has a foot in the boxing world.
Alsheikh has spent the last two years using his deep pockets to help turn boxing around by spending huge sums to make the best fights happen.
And he even offered enough to get rivalling promoters like Hearn and Frank Warren to do business together.
But now White has teamed up with Alsheikh – fans online have goaded that boxing’s old guard will soon be yesterday’s news.
When SunSport put this to Hearn, he said with his trademark Essex grin: “Totally finished! Yeah.
“We did have a business before Saudi Arabia and obviously we’ll continue to have some.
“But we’ve loved being involved with Riyadh Season and His Excellency, it’s been hugely beneficial for us and the sport and our fighters and we expect that to continue.”
It is unclear yet what TKO’s boxing league will look like – with even Hearn in the dark about the sport’s new players.
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He said: “I’ve known about it for probably over six months and kind of waiting for an announcement but don’t really know anything about the format of it.
“I saw some aggressive things said in the press release about one belt and all this kind of stuff but we’ll see how it plays out.”
TKO announced they will look to host “four large scale super-fights” across 2025 and 2026 as well as building up-and-coming talent.
And after a recent turnaround in working with his rivals, Hearn opened the door to breaking bread with White & Co.
He said: “If it suits us, if it suits our fighters, and if we’re asked to be, yeah, definitely consider it.
“I mean, I think it’s great that Dana White’s getting involved with boxing. TKO is a great company, he’s a great promoter.
“I think it shows you where boxing’s at, I don’t believe boxing’s broken.
“I think we can always work on improving it but no, I think it’s exciting to see what kind of structure it’s gonna deliver.”
Canelo Alvarez, 34, and Terence Crawford, 37, are set for a super-fight in September in Las Vegas, rumoured to be promoted by TKO.
And after ESPN did not renew their contract with Bob Arum’s Top Rank stable, TKO could be headed to the sports network.
Hearn said: “I think in the press release said about building stars and building talent, so is it lesser known fighters?
“I mean, it looks like they’ve got the ESPN deal from Top Rank which is obviously massive.
“And that can build stars, so listen, they’re smart guys. I’m sure they’ll come up with a structure that has potential.”