Eddie Hearn: 'I would be ridiculed for months' if I did a show like Dana White's Zuffa Boxing debut

This past weekend was a significant one in the boxing world. Las Vegas hosted shows on successive nights from Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom, widely regarded as the sport’s leading promotional outfit, alongside the debut event from Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing — a company that hopes to take Matchroom’s spot and go one step further in the coming years.

Zuffa’s first show arrived to mixed reviews. While there was some solid matchmaking and entertainment value on the undercard, many felt the main event and atmosphere at the Meta Apex left a lot to be desired. Speaking on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Hearn suggested that Zuffa’s boxing product remains very much a work in progress.

“Basic,” Hearn reflected on the first Zuffa card. “I haven’t seen [the show in full]. I think these guys are long-term players. Everybody is different, right? To the naked eye, it probably lacked ambition. If you want to come out of the gates hot, you want to do a big event with a big crowd and make big noise. But at the same time, I don’t think these people are necessarily like that. I think they’re looking at a five to 10-year plan for the business and [thought], ‘Let’s get it rolling.’

“If I did a show like that with that card in that kind of atmosphere with the look [and feel it had], I would be ridiculed for months. This is a new thing and it’s emerging, and no doubt, it will get better and better.

“They’ve got another one on Sunday — that’s actually a better card. Again, a lot of [fighters] that not a lot of people know.”

Zuffa is set to stage the second of its initial run of cards on Sunday, with a show headlined by former WBA super lightweight champion Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela. On the undercard, ex-WBC light heavyweight titlist Oleksandr Gvozdyk faces Radivoje Kalajdzic and Serhii Bohachuk meets former WBA (Regular) welterweight belt holder Radzhab Butaev.

Zuffa’s second card will be a more compelling watch for boxing fans, as although there are no star names on the show, both fights on the main undercard feature fighters who have been at or around the world level in recent years.

“I think the key is really the storytelling,” Hearn said. “If you’re going to use the level of fighters that they’re using at the moment, you need to kind of explain who they are and what it is. This is what I talked about with regards to the league, the belts, the governing bodies — everything is a bit mixed up and in the air. I’m sure they’ll get to that eventually, but I said previously, ‘What are you actually watching? Just three fights? What are they for, a championship, or is this part of the league, or is it just three fights?’ And the answer was, no, it’s just three fights. That’s cool, but what are they fighting for?

“[Zuffa Boxing’s first show] is just some stuff bundled together and Sunday is the same, but they’ll get into that. They’re a big machine.”

Hearn believes Zuffa will be in the boxing business for many years to come and is still building toward competing at the top table of promoters, rather than starting there. When UFC CEO White launched Zuffa, he said it was done with inspiration from the “Tuesday Night Fights” series on the USA Network in the 1980s and ’90s. The network regularly showcased competitive bouts between up-and-coming prospects and contenders, hoping to build stars who could move on to championship fights.

White wants to do the same — create Zuffa champions who could fight on Turki Alalshikh’s Ring Magazine and Riyadh Season shows.

White’s UFC has created a virtual monopoly in mixed martial arts, while Nick Khan’s WWE holds a similar position in wrestling. Both the UFC and WWE are TKO products, as is Zuffa, which could be on its way to doing the same in boxing.

Both UFC and WWE became so powerful within their respective sports due to the brand presence the companies possess. Zuffa’s initial approach is akin to that, with its first card being labeled “ZO1,” similar to UFC’s numbered cards. Boxers are also made to wear Zuffa ring outfits and are not allowed to have sponsors, so Zuffa is the only brand visible.

“It’s the same principles and the same precedent that they’ve set before — the whole UFC,” Hearn explained. “You build the brand so that the talent wants to be a part of it. The talent that they’re securing at the moment is actually overjoyed to get a tracksuit in their room. ‘Oh, I’ve got my Zuffa tracksuit, this is unbelievable.’ You’ve got to wear that, you’ve got to wear these pants at the weigh-in. It’s the same control principle as the UFC. Where the UFC business is so smart is every MMA fighter dreams of fighting for the UFC. Therefore, you’ve got the hook already for those guys. In terms of your recruitment process, what a piece of cake. You can get these guys to sign up to do anything.

“You give all your rights away essentially, but you do it for a UFC contract, which is major and provides you [with] a fantastic opportunity. I know a lot of fighters that [Zuffa] offered deals to, and they’ve come to us, [fighters who are] not with us, but have said, ‘Look, could you take a look at [my offer].’ I say, ‘I think you should do it. Where are you going to get this kind of opportunity? You’re struggling to get a fight anywhere. Now you’ve got regular boxing. You’ll be matched pretty tough, and if you get beat, you’re probably off, but in the meantime, why not? And you get a free tracksuit as well, it’s incredible.'”

Zuffa shocked the boxing world when it announced the signing of IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia earlier this month. The signing, while a tremendous addition to any stable, posed a lot of contradictions with Zuffa’s original plan, particularly the strategy of not recognizing the sanctioning bodies and their belts.

“What matters to Jai is the belts,” Hearn said. “You’ve had the situation where Dana has come out and said, ‘We’re not acknowledging any of the belts. They’re out. Governing bodies — go away, disappear.’ But now you’re recruiting fighters who are desperate to fight for the belts.

“The U-turn is going to be when he fights in March — the move for Jai made sense because they are going to get him the unification fights, apparently. So in March, he will fight, apparently, the WBC world champion in a unification. That’s a good move for Jai Opetaia. Now, if they don’t get him that fight, it’s probably not a good move, but at least he can get some more money.”

While Opetaia and WBC titlist Noel Mikaelyan faced off backstage during Zuffa’s inaugural show this past Friday, industry sources told Uncrowned that a unification fight between the pair isn’t planned to take place next. The expectation is that Opetaia will face a different opponent on March 8 at the Meta Apex and then move into a unification fight with Mikaelyan later in 2026, possibly on a bigger show.

“They have to acknowledge that the fight is for the IBF and WBC world championships,” Hearn said of the planned Opetaia vs. Mikaelyan bout. “What’s going to happen is they’re not going to acknowledge it. They don’t want them in the building. There’s going to be a big moment where the governing bodies are going to have to make a call to say, ‘Hold on, if you’re not acknowledging that our world championship is on the line, if you’re not paying the promoter sanctioning fees for these events, we’re not allowing the belt to be on the line.’

“But I think that’s what Zuffa probably wants,” Hearn continued.

“They probably want a situation, perhaps where there’s an argument [between] Jai and the [sanctioning bodies], and they say to Jai, ‘Look, bin this off [and let’s fight for the Zuffa championship]. You’d be the first guy to become the Zuffa Boxing world champion.’ And then you have to have a fight because you’re getting good money, and then go up there and parade a Zuffa belt around in the ring. They hope it will get them momentum, and the Zuffa belt will actually become a thing. I’m fascinated more by that than maybe even what plays out.”

While Zuffa initially came out saying they wouldn’t recognize the belts, White went back on that a little at his post-fight press conference after Zuffa Boxing’s debut event, acknowledging that fighters’ lifelong dreams have been centered around winning sanctioning body titles, and that he would do everything he could to allow fighters to do that, namely Opetaia.

Jai Opetaia has long been determined to unify his cruiserweight belts.

(Chris Hyde via Getty Images)

White does, however, have plans with the Zuffa belt, which was visible in his Zuffa Boxing rollout video published just a couple of weeks ago. Hearn thinks that White will try to sign established champions and transfer them into the Zuffa model so Zuffa belts can gain legitimacy.

A lot has been made of the fighter compensation model Zuffa will employ in boxing. The UFC notoriously has a favorable model, whereby it keeps the majority of the revenue coming into a show. Zuffa, however, is funded by Saudi Arabia’s SELA and so its financial model, at least initially, results in boxers on Zuffa shows making far more, relative to their commercial value, compared to other TKO athletes.

Hearn believes this will create a “revolt” among UFC fighters over their purses, although followers of MMA doubt that this will be the case.

“When we talk about fighter pay, they’re going to be signing fighters that are making considerably more than the biggest UFC fighters,” Hearn said. “[Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez is making] much more than [UFC 324 headliners] Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje are making.

“I just find it fascinating that you can have a situation [like UFC 324] where you take $11 million on the gate. Now you talk about the value of a Paramount deal, who knows what the allocation is to individual events — what are you looking at per event? Call it $25 million, $30 million plus endorsements on the night. You’re talking about probably around $50 million worth of revenue in the pot for that show on Saturday. … You’re telling me you’re generating $50 million in revenue and the main event fighters are getting $750k to $1 million? Or whatever the actual figure is. What a business. Wow.

“If you’re talking about $50 million of revenue and the entire fight card getting $5 million, probably less, you’re talking about 10% of your revenue going on to fighter pay,” Hearn continued. “Flip it on boxing, you’re talking more like 70-80% of your revenue going into fighter pay. And by the way, for some people, 200% and losing a fortune along the way. What a situation where a fighter like that could be making a quarter of what ‘Bam’ Rodriguez is making, and they’ve just sold out the T-Mobile and delivered one of the biggest audiences for a fight event on Paramount.

“Jai Opetaia will be making a lot more money than Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje made at the weekend. If that doesn’t ruffle the feathers of the UFC roster, maybe nothing ever will.”

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