{"id":356347,"date":"2025-12-19T22:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T22:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/356347\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T22:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T22:05:07","slug":"eddie-hearn-rips-zuffa-boxing-fighter-pay-ahead-of-debut-i-couldnt-believe-how-bad-the-money-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/356347\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn rips Zuffa Boxing fighter pay ahead of debut: \u2018I couldn\u2019t believe how bad the money was\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Matchroom Boxing CEO Eddie Hearn had strong words ahead of Dana White\u2019s upcoming entrance to the boxing scene with Zuffa Boxing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">TKO president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro revealed earlier this month that Zuffa Boxing\u2019s first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/boxing\/460772\/zuffa-boxing-launching-with-first-event-during-ufc-324-weekend\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">show is planned for Jan. 23<\/a>, the night before UFC\u2019s first card of 2026 with UFC 324, but no further details have been announced just yet in terms of locations and athletes involved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Hearn, however, claims that the money offered to some boxers have been low.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI was with a manager the other day who told me about an offer that [Zuffa Boxing] made to one of their fighters,\u201d Hearn told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MsjEhPnB1V4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boxing Social<\/a>. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe how bad the money was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The veteran promoter, who is in Miami this week for a heavyweight showdown between Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul, was also very critical of White\u2019s attempt to alter the Ali Act. The UFC has historically been against the idea of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2016\/6\/11\/11910628\/ufc-hires-lobbying-firm-to-combat-extension-of-ali-act-to-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">extending the Act to MMA<\/a>, and now supports a Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act alongside Saudi Arabian promoter Turki Alalshikh, which would forever change the way boxing works for promoters and athletes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI don\u2019t see why there should be an alteration to the Ali Act,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cThe Act is designed to protect the fighters. Respect the fighters, protect the fighters. I\u2019m not gonna get into a fight with Congress. I mean, they\u2019re talking about the Geezer\u2019s mates with Trump. What am I going to do?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cUltimately, if they want to get it through, they\u2019re going to get it through, aren\u2019t they? But you know, doesn\u2019t take a rocket scientist to know what they\u2019re trying to do. And fighters know what they\u2019re trying to do. But listen, if there\u2019s an opportunity for a fighter, they\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matchroom Boxing CEO Eddie Hearn had strong words ahead of Dana White\u2019s upcoming entrance to the boxing scene&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,49,48,701,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-356347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-news","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-latest-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}