Eddie Hearn heads to Turki Alalshikh, Dana White summit ‘with all the aces’
Posted: 29 Jun 2026, 06:38
Eddie Hearn heads to Turki Alalshikh, Dana White summit ‘with all the aces’
Saudi Arabian boxing financier Turki Alalshikh has requested the presence of his two feuding partners Eddie Hearn and Dana White to convene for a summit this week to address their divide and explore if solutions are available.
At this hour, the greatest chasm is over who’s going to promote the massive heavyweight bout between two-time champions Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
Hearn has already negotiated and gained the signature from his Matchroom Boxing fighter Joshua with the intention to fight in England. Queensberry’s Fury has also signed, though it’s understood that the terms and conditions on his contract differ.
Meanwhile, White had insisted that he and fellow executive Nick Khan’s Zuffa Boxing will land the fight, hinting strongly it’s coming to an American stadium.
Fury lended credence to White’s claim by attending the UFC White House card that company CEO/President White staged earlier this month.
There, Fury identified Alalshikh as his promoter, and Boxing Scene previously reported Fury’s signed contract does not necessitate the fight to be in the U.K.
Alalshikh owns 60 per cent of Zuffa Boxing, and his parent Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund owns 10 per cent of DAZN, the streaming partner of Matchroom.
“I mean, Turki, he does often contradict himself, in the sense of, he loves the fuckery,” Hearn told Boxing Scene Sunday morning at Barclays Center, following a rousing three-knockdown, seventh-round TKO victory by Matchroom’s Jaron “Boots” Ennis to seize the WBO and WBA 154lbs belts from Xander Zayas on DAZN.
“He loves me and Dana [feuding], loves [tension with fellow U.K. promoters] Frank [Warren] and Ben Shalom. He loves that. But then he says, ‘Guys, come on…’ because he wants to do things that the friction is stopping from happening. So then he wants to bring everyone together.”
Hearn and White have argued so fervently over Joshua-Fury and their separate directions for the sport – Zuffa Boxing is seeking to make wholesale changes to the Ali Act – that the pair have discussed settling their beef in the ring, mano-a-mano.
“It’s very difficult, because I don’t really want to do that [summit] if I’m being honest, but we’re partners with [Alalshikh in DAZN], so I’m not going to say, ‘I’m not coming,’” Hearn said. “But I’m not really interested in standing in a room where everyone’s putting their hands in the middle, where we’re saying, ‘Yeah, here we are, we’re at peace, we’re moving forward,’ because then when you leave, everybody starts and you’ve got a new life. Or it’s the same old shit. We’ll see what happens.”
Alalshikh keeping his hands in the pies of Zuffa and DAZN while staging fights with all major promotions was bound to arouse ego-fueled rivalries among the fight makers.
And how he’ll bridge this, with White seeking a takeover of the sport and Hearn digging in by staging a sensational card like Saturday’s, is unforeseen.
Some observers wonder why Hearn trusts Alalshikh, when his alliance with Zuffa and its powerful streaming deal with Paramount+ provides so much potential to go beyond the signings of champions Jai Opetaia, Richardson Hitchins and contenders Conor Benn and Edgar Berlanga in the push for dominance.
After the Ennis fight, someone asked Hearn about his loyalty amid indications from Alalshikh that a health scare could deprive him of his memory within two years.
“When he tells me something, it always happens,” Hearn said.
“One thing that can’t be denied, the changes he’s made to the sport to make better fights, the rocket he’s put up the asses of others to make better fights and to try harder… he made everything more competitive.”
Hearn pointed to Saturday night as a prime example. If Zayas promoter Top Rank was still paired with ESPN, the likelihood of Top Rank allowing DAZN’s Ennis on ESPN or letting unified champion Zayas to fight on DAZN would’ve been nil.
Instead, now that both promoters are linked to DAZN, an epic third round and a possible fight of the year materialized.
Fledgling Zuffa Boxing, pointing to boxing’s various deficiencies, dresses its fighters in standard uniforms, and while its pay and health benefits are stronger for young fighters and veteran opponent types, it’s uncertain if they will consistently fund title-fighter purses that its rivals are paying.
“I’ll join [the summit], but…” Hearn said. “That’s why I feel like tonight was so important for us. Not just for us, but for boxing. And for real boxing.
“Because what they’re trying to do is take away the identity of the sport. We need to fight back, but we do it with a great product. If you were in the arena tonight, or watching it at home, you were mesmerized by the product and greatness of the sport. So, there’s nothing wrong with the sport when you see fights like that.”
Raising the Joshua-Fury showdown for later this year, as Joshua heads to a July 25 tune-up in Saudi Arabia, will require the kind of Alalshikh diplomacy that only money can buy.
“The contract is very clear,” Hearn said. “The only way things can change in the contract is if Anthony Joshua and myself agree to change them. If we want to start again and renegotiate the contract, we’ll have those conversations with Turki Alalshikh, but it’d be a lot easier to just carry it, do the fight in the U.K., where it should be.
“I don’t want to be arrogant to say we hold all the aces, but…”
With that, Hearn shrugged his shoulders and grinned in confidence.
“We’ve got the contract that we wanted and that we negotiated. And we don’t really want to change anything,” he said. “But let’s have a chat and see where we get to. We’ll see.”
During the long wait for Ennis at the post-fight news conference, Hearn spoke of all the remarkable sequences of the fight, how Ennis and Zayas went right to war in the first round, how Zayas, 23, scared him by rocking Ennis with shots during that amazing third frame, how Ennis recovered to knock down Zayas in the fifth and then end it in the seventh with another brutal combination.
Classic bouts against WBC 154lbs champion Sebastian Fundora, unbeaten WBC interim champion Vergil Ortiz Jnr or a road trip to England to meet Hearn-promoted IBF champion Josh Kelly could await.
“After that [Ennis-Zayas], I’m a bit pumped, so at the moment I’m thinking, fornicate off, I’m not going,” Hearn cracked of the summit. “Maybe tomorrow, I’ll go…”
Saudi Arabian boxing financier Turki Alalshikh has requested the presence of his two feuding partners Eddie Hearn and Dana White to convene for a summit this week to address their divide and explore if solutions are available.
At this hour, the greatest chasm is over who’s going to promote the massive heavyweight bout between two-time champions Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
Hearn has already negotiated and gained the signature from his Matchroom Boxing fighter Joshua with the intention to fight in England. Queensberry’s Fury has also signed, though it’s understood that the terms and conditions on his contract differ.
Meanwhile, White had insisted that he and fellow executive Nick Khan’s Zuffa Boxing will land the fight, hinting strongly it’s coming to an American stadium.
Fury lended credence to White’s claim by attending the UFC White House card that company CEO/President White staged earlier this month.
There, Fury identified Alalshikh as his promoter, and Boxing Scene previously reported Fury’s signed contract does not necessitate the fight to be in the U.K.
Alalshikh owns 60 per cent of Zuffa Boxing, and his parent Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund owns 10 per cent of DAZN, the streaming partner of Matchroom.
“I mean, Turki, he does often contradict himself, in the sense of, he loves the fuckery,” Hearn told Boxing Scene Sunday morning at Barclays Center, following a rousing three-knockdown, seventh-round TKO victory by Matchroom’s Jaron “Boots” Ennis to seize the WBO and WBA 154lbs belts from Xander Zayas on DAZN.
“He loves me and Dana [feuding], loves [tension with fellow U.K. promoters] Frank [Warren] and Ben Shalom. He loves that. But then he says, ‘Guys, come on…’ because he wants to do things that the friction is stopping from happening. So then he wants to bring everyone together.”
Hearn and White have argued so fervently over Joshua-Fury and their separate directions for the sport – Zuffa Boxing is seeking to make wholesale changes to the Ali Act – that the pair have discussed settling their beef in the ring, mano-a-mano.
“It’s very difficult, because I don’t really want to do that [summit] if I’m being honest, but we’re partners with [Alalshikh in DAZN], so I’m not going to say, ‘I’m not coming,’” Hearn said. “But I’m not really interested in standing in a room where everyone’s putting their hands in the middle, where we’re saying, ‘Yeah, here we are, we’re at peace, we’re moving forward,’ because then when you leave, everybody starts and you’ve got a new life. Or it’s the same old shit. We’ll see what happens.”
Alalshikh keeping his hands in the pies of Zuffa and DAZN while staging fights with all major promotions was bound to arouse ego-fueled rivalries among the fight makers.
And how he’ll bridge this, with White seeking a takeover of the sport and Hearn digging in by staging a sensational card like Saturday’s, is unforeseen.
Some observers wonder why Hearn trusts Alalshikh, when his alliance with Zuffa and its powerful streaming deal with Paramount+ provides so much potential to go beyond the signings of champions Jai Opetaia, Richardson Hitchins and contenders Conor Benn and Edgar Berlanga in the push for dominance.
After the Ennis fight, someone asked Hearn about his loyalty amid indications from Alalshikh that a health scare could deprive him of his memory within two years.
“When he tells me something, it always happens,” Hearn said.
“One thing that can’t be denied, the changes he’s made to the sport to make better fights, the rocket he’s put up the asses of others to make better fights and to try harder… he made everything more competitive.”
Hearn pointed to Saturday night as a prime example. If Zayas promoter Top Rank was still paired with ESPN, the likelihood of Top Rank allowing DAZN’s Ennis on ESPN or letting unified champion Zayas to fight on DAZN would’ve been nil.
Instead, now that both promoters are linked to DAZN, an epic third round and a possible fight of the year materialized.
Fledgling Zuffa Boxing, pointing to boxing’s various deficiencies, dresses its fighters in standard uniforms, and while its pay and health benefits are stronger for young fighters and veteran opponent types, it’s uncertain if they will consistently fund title-fighter purses that its rivals are paying.
“I’ll join [the summit], but…” Hearn said. “That’s why I feel like tonight was so important for us. Not just for us, but for boxing. And for real boxing.
“Because what they’re trying to do is take away the identity of the sport. We need to fight back, but we do it with a great product. If you were in the arena tonight, or watching it at home, you were mesmerized by the product and greatness of the sport. So, there’s nothing wrong with the sport when you see fights like that.”
Raising the Joshua-Fury showdown for later this year, as Joshua heads to a July 25 tune-up in Saudi Arabia, will require the kind of Alalshikh diplomacy that only money can buy.
“The contract is very clear,” Hearn said. “The only way things can change in the contract is if Anthony Joshua and myself agree to change them. If we want to start again and renegotiate the contract, we’ll have those conversations with Turki Alalshikh, but it’d be a lot easier to just carry it, do the fight in the U.K., where it should be.
“I don’t want to be arrogant to say we hold all the aces, but…”
With that, Hearn shrugged his shoulders and grinned in confidence.
“We’ve got the contract that we wanted and that we negotiated. And we don’t really want to change anything,” he said. “But let’s have a chat and see where we get to. We’ll see.”
During the long wait for Ennis at the post-fight news conference, Hearn spoke of all the remarkable sequences of the fight, how Ennis and Zayas went right to war in the first round, how Zayas, 23, scared him by rocking Ennis with shots during that amazing third frame, how Ennis recovered to knock down Zayas in the fifth and then end it in the seventh with another brutal combination.
Classic bouts against WBC 154lbs champion Sebastian Fundora, unbeaten WBC interim champion Vergil Ortiz Jnr or a road trip to England to meet Hearn-promoted IBF champion Josh Kelly could await.
“After that [Ennis-Zayas], I’m a bit pumped, so at the moment I’m thinking, fornicate off, I’m not going,” Hearn cracked of the summit. “Maybe tomorrow, I’ll go…”
