{"id":523078,"date":"2026-03-06T19:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T19:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523078\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T19:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T19:10:08","slug":"tom-aspinall-conor-benn-deal-convinced-me-to-partner-with-eddie-hearn-says-ufc-heavyweight-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523078\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Aspinall: Conor Benn deal convinced me to partner with Eddie Hearn, says UFC heavyweight champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall says seeing Conor Benn secure a reported \u00a311m one-fight deal with Zuffa Boxing helped to convince him to team up with Eddie Hearn.<\/p>\n

Britain’s Aspinall joined Hearn’s<\/a> ‘Matchroom Talent Agency’ on Thursday<\/a> in a “commercial and advisory” deal rather than a promotional one, meaning the 32-year-old remains signed to the UFC.<\/p>\n

The move – a bid by Aspinall to maximise his earnings outside of the UFC – has come two weeks after boxer Benn left<\/a> Hearn’s promotional outfit Matchroom to join Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing.<\/p>\n

Benn’s deal with UFC president White’s boxing promotion ruffled the feathers of several UFC fighters, including Aspinall, who earn significantly less than their boxing counterparts.<\/p>\n

“I think if one guy gets $15m [\u00a311m] and the other guy gets $15k [\u00a311,000], that’s a big deal to make, which is part of the reason I want to explore other options,” said Aspinall during a news conference on Friday.<\/p>\n

“I want to be a trailblazer for MMA fighters who can make a lot of money and be successful outside the octagon as well as inside.<\/p>\n

“Publicly or privately, a lot of MMA fighters complain about the money we’re getting paid, but that’s the contract we all signed. I’ve accepted that and I want to make as much money outside the octagon as I possibly can.”<\/p>\n

Hearn described himself as Aspinall’s “manager”, stressing that his role is to “build Tom commercially”.<\/p>\n

Aspinall has ruled out boxing in the immediate future as he remains contracted to the UFC, which forbids fighters from competing in other combat sports without obtaining permission.<\/p>\n

Hearn said: “Now’s about moving forward with Tom, building him commercially, growing his profile, building that relationship with brands and fans.<\/p>\n

“And also making sure he gets what he absolutely deserves with the commercial power he has as a fighter.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall says seeing Conor Benn secure a reported \u00a311m one-fight deal with Zuffa Boxing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-523078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523078","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=523078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}