Dana White has bragged about him unauthorized involvement in the months-long boxing superfight Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua. Now he’s starting to seem pretty sick of it, as contractual restrictions could push him out of the fight or lead to a fight will be cancelled.
A lot of ink has been spilled over the current mess that is Fury Vs. AJ. The bottom line is this: Anthony Joshua has an agreement with the Saudis that his fight with Tyson Fury must take place in the UK and not involve a TKO and/or Dana White. Joshua’s manager Eddie Hearn enforces both stipulations and although the bout has now been announced. Princeity Stadium in CardiffWhite’s involvement remains a potential snag in canceling the fight.
White was in the UK for Zuffa Boxing’s latest card and faced a line-up of UK boxing press who wouldn’t just pull tail or stop asking questions at the first hint of Dana’s displeasure. Things got pretty awkward as reporter after reporter ignored what just happened and instead grilled the UFC CEO about Fury vs. Joshua.
“Haven’t I answered this question 257,000 times?” White talked about his involvement in the fight. “Same as yesterday and the day before and the day before… We’re promoting the fight now. And what I’ve said 150,000 times, I don’t know if I’ve ever known anybody more full of shit than Eddie Hearn. I’m done. This guy is full of the f—king thing since we’ve been talking back here.
Asked by The Sun’s Jack Figg if he would give up the fight to make sure it still happened, White said: “It’s not up to me. I’m involved in the f–king fight.”
When asked if it was a call from Saudi Arabian boxing powerbroker Turki Aalshikh, White became even more annoyed.
“I know what you do, you run the questions and you know, ‘King,'” he said. Figg denied the charge and White replied, “Oh really, you just got here? Welcome to boxing, what did you just walk into with your cell phone across the street and you don’t know about the sport or what’s going on and who you are and how you got here?”
“Do you have any questions about tonight or anything else?”
White declined to elaborate on the Instagram Story image that showed him in a video call with Turki Aalshikh, saying that any questions about “Sheikh Turk” should be directed to Aalshikh himself. He then turned his anger back on Anthony Joshua’s manager, Eddie Hearn.
“Eddie Hearn will probably do 652,000 interviews in the next 3 hours,” he said. “So I’m sure he’ll answer a lot of those questions for you.”
“If Eddie Hearn really cared about this f–king fight, this fight would have happened a long time ago, number one. Number one, he can fund this thing himself. I mean, I’ve said it a million times. Fund the fight yourself. The f–king will sell the tickets, cut the TV deal, and sell the fight.”
The press conference ended with little new information, but White suggested that all will be revealed soon.
“In the next three to four days, we will all know a lot more,” he said.
