Dana White Admits He Has No Idea If Fury vs Joshua Will Happen
Dana White says the Fury-Joshua mega-fight is a mess, blaming Eddie Hearn for holding up the December 11 bout.
Dana White was supposed to be celebrating Zuffa Boxing's night in London. Instead he spent Saturday fielding questions about a heavyweight mega-fight that might be falling apart.
Asked whether the December 11 Fury vs Joshua bout in Cardiff will actually happen, White was blunt. "I don't know," he said. When pressed on whether the scheduled September 30 press conference would take place, he added: "I have no idea." He called the entire situation "a s-show."
The central dispute is White's promotional role. Netflix announced that White and Saudi adviser Turki Alalshikh would collaborate to promote the event through The Ring. But Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn contends that Joshua's contract blocks White and TKO from holding any promotional role. The contract terms have not been made public.
White put the blame squarely on Hearn. "The guy who is supposed to be helping the fight has been hurting the fight the entire time," he said.
Adding to the confusion, Zuffa Boxing broadcast analyst Max Kellerman described White's involvement as personal assistance to Alalshikh rather than a formal promoter role, per Sherdog. White flatly rejected that framing. "I don't know where that came from," he said. "That was weird. We're promoting the fight right now."
Fury backed White's side, calling Hearn a "spoiled little posh boy" and pointing out that Hearn doesn't have the money to finance the fight himself. "If Eddie wanted to promote this fight, then he should have put up the money," Fury said, per Sherdog. "But because he doesn't have the money to do it, then I know a man who does: Turki Alalshikh."
This fight has been a circus for weeks and it's only getting worse. You've got Dana saying he's promoting it, Kellerman on Dana's own broadcast saying he's not, Hearn waving a contract nobody's seen, and Fury calling everyone names from across the Atlantic. Nobody is on the same page.
Here's the thing: the money is there. Netflix wants it. Turki wants it. Both fighters want it. That usually means the fight happens eventually. But "eventually" and "December 11 in Cardiff" are two different things, and that September 30 presser is looking shaky at best.
I said last week this fight had a 1 percent chance. I'll bump it up to maybe 40 now, only because the financial pressure is enormous. But every day this promotional turf war drags on is another day for the whole thing to collapse. Someone needs to lock Hearn and White in a room and not let them out until there's a deal. The fans deserve this fight. The egos might kill it.
