{"id":521617,"date":"2026-03-06T03:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T03:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521617\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T03:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T03:06:07","slug":"dana-white-reacts-to-tom-aspinall-signing-with-eddie-hearn-for-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521617\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana White reacts to Tom Aspinall signing with Eddie Hearn for representation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Dana White has no problem negotiating with anybody representing UFC fighters and that now includes Eddie Hearn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">On Thursday, UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/ufc\/474953\/ufc-heavyweight-champion-tom-aspinall-signs-with-eddie-hearn-for-representation-time-to-get-whats-yours\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced he was signing with Hearn\u2019s new Matchroom Talent Agency<\/a> where the famed boxing promoter is now going to represent him in all aspects of his business \u2014 including his fight career. Of course, Hearn has engaged in a contentious verbal battle with White over the past couple of months and the rivalry got ratcheted up after Zuffa Boxing signed Conor Benn away from Matchroom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Hearn scored the latest salvo by signing Aspinall but White promises that didn\u2019t get under his skin and he doesn\u2019t expect that to cause some kind of riff between the UFC and the reigning heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWe don\u2019t have any issues with Eddie,\u201d White said during the UFC 326 pre-fight press conference. \u201cThey can get whoever they want to represent them. Tito Ortiz used to represent people and we got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">White has famously touted his ability to negotiate with anybody when it comes to making fights and he usually uses Ortiz as the prime example after they endured one of the most volatile relationships between a promoter and fighter in history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Ortiz eventually moved onto represent fighters and that reignited a new kind of working relationship with White but he obviously didn\u2019t seem bothered by those past dealings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Right now, Aspinall is still recovering from double eye surgery to repair the damage done from his fight against Ciryl Gane this past October when he suffered a brutal eye poke that ended the title bout in the opening round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Since then, Aspinall has been trying to recover and more recently revealed that he had a procedure done on both eyes. He still hasn\u2019t set a timeline for his return but Aspinall did announce he was getting \u201cback to business\u201d by signing with Hearn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI have signed with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom on a commercial advisory deal,\u201d Aspinall said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done most of my career with the really small team that I\u2019ve got but I wanted to add to my value. Eddie\u2019s someone that I\u2019ve known for a fair bit, I trust Eddie and I want to make as much money and grow commercially as much as possible while I\u2019m fighting. Obviously, we\u2019re still recovering but I\u2019m looking to get back in there as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">White previously said that he always got along with Hearn but after launching Zuffa Boxing, the British promoter started creating tension between them and effectively said he was ready to go to battle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The UFC CEO never shied away from responding in the escalating war of words but definitely scored a vicious blow by signing Benn away from Hearn\u2019s company. Now Hearn has delivered his own body shot by signing to represent Aspinall and he\u2019ll likely sit directly across from White when it comes time for the UFC heavyweight champion to compete again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dana White has no problem negotiating with anybody representing UFC fighters and that now includes Eddie Hearn. On&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-521617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}