Matchroom chief Hearn has said he expects the signing of Benn, by White\u2019s new entity Zuffa Boxing<\/a>, to be a singular chess move in what may be a decade-long promotional feud. Yet that feud may not be a simple 1 vs 1, after Wednesday\u2019s report that Hearn\u2019s fellow promoter Frank Warren<\/a> is claiming $1bn in lost income from Zuffa Boxing\u2019s owners.<\/p>\n Saudi official Turki Alalshikh<\/a> brought Hearn and Warren together over the last couple of years, despite the Britons\u2019 longstanding grudge, as the trio worked on numerous high-profile events<\/a>; now, Hearn and Warren may need to band together to thwart what Alalshikh is building, given that he is working with White at Zuffa Boxing.<\/p>\n This has been a complex saga already, and within it, there is a feeling that a boxing civil war has broken out. Here\u2019s what has happened so far, why, and what could come next…<\/p>\n A betrayal by Conor Benn?<\/p>\n On Friday night, Zuffa Boxing\u2019s X account shared a post announcing Benn\u2019s signing. It was scarcely believable<\/a>. The account carries a blue tick \u2013 not gold \u2013 so there was some reason to question the post\u2019s legitimacy. Even after that, the images of Benn and White together just looked… wrong, somehow, as if they could be AI. Of course this wasn\u2019t the case, but it\u2019s a testament to the surreality of the moment. And so The Independent approached Benn and his manager for comment, as well as sending other relevant parties the \u201cis this real??\u201d text. At least one figure had been caught off guard.<\/p>\n The main reason the news was so shocking was Benn\u2019s relationship with Hearn; Matchroom had stuck by Benn during a three-year saga in which he couldn\u2019t box on home soil after failing two drug tests<\/a>. Hearn claimed he had even lent Benn \u201chundreds of thousands of pounds\u201d during that time, in which the welterweight said he was as mentally low as someone could be. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Conor Benn (right) with his now-former promoter Eddie Hearn (Getty)<\/p>\n Furthermore, Hearn claimed Benn wouldn\u2019t even afford him a phone call<\/a> to discuss the Zuffa move. \u201cI made a mistake, because I misjudged the character,\u201d Hearn told iFL TV<\/a> late on Friday, the devastation and regret clear in his voice. \u201cI\u2019m not gonna hang him out to dry […] but when I received the email from his lawyer, I texted him and said: \u2018For everything I\u2019ve done for you, I think I deserve a call.\u2019 And he said \u2018no\u2019, and I was like: \u2018Man… f***… I can\u2019t believe it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, Benn joined White just days after the American launched a scathing tirade<\/a> at Hearn, who soon fired back<\/a>.<\/p>\n Enjoy 185+ fights a year on DAZN, the Global Home of Boxing<\/p>\n Never miss a fight from top promoters. Watch on your devices anywhere, anytime.<\/p>\n Buy Now<\/a><\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.<\/p>\n Enjoy 185+ fights a year on DAZN, the Global Home of Boxing<\/p>\n Never miss a fight from top promoters. Watch on your devices anywhere, anytime.<\/p>\n Buy Now<\/a><\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.<\/p>\n Benn, 29, said he hopes he and Hearn can continue working together in some way<\/a>, which truthfully sounded naive. Yet Benn may soon be a free agent again, with one executive confirming that Benn\u2019s deal only includes one fight<\/a>. Sports Illustrated reported that the contract is worth $15m, a number that Shapiro acknowledged but wouldn\u2019t confirm.<\/p>\n Another interesting element is Benn\u2019s long-standing desire to fight for the WBC title, considering Zuffa intends to move away from the traditional belt system. Even with that in mind, Benn was calling for a shot at new WBC champion Ryan Garcia within two days of joining Zuffa. <\/p>\n Thursday brought a surprise then, in the news that Benn will fight Regis Prograis in April<\/a>,\u00a0live on Netflix (on Tyson Fury\u2019s undercard<\/a>), and at a 150lb catchweight. The Netflix factor means Benn\u2019s sole contracted fight with Zuffa may not even air on the promotion\u2019s main broadcast platform, Paramount+.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Benn at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, before Ryan Garcia\u2019s title win (Getty for Thomas J Henry)<\/p>\n Benn will also fight Prograis in London, despite Zuffa\u2019s essence as an American brand and Benn\u2019s apparent wish to box in the US. And for as much as Benn is reported to be earning regardless, there would have been a tax benefit to competing Stateside. But \u201cit\u2019s worth taking the tax hit to be on the Fury undercard\u201d, argued Oriana Morrison, a sports accountant and tax strategist, while speaking to The Independent. \u201cPeople are far more likely to watch something with Fury in it than without him. Benn will get that payout in the long run with Zuffa, Netflix, and Fury\u2019s audience\u2019s eyes on him.\u201d<\/p>\n But back to the belts. Zuffa\u2019s second-biggest signing is Jai Opetaia<\/a>, the IBF cruiserweight champion who is desperate to collect the division\u2019s other major titles<\/a>. He will fight Brandon Glanton for the new Zuffa cruiserweight belt in March, and it\u2019s unknown whether his IBF strap will be on the line in that contest. Opetaia and Zuffa\u2019s goals don\u2019t seem to align, yet the Australian insisted they do. Still, he fired a warning to Zuffa<\/a>: \u201cIf we don\u2019t get one [unification fight] by the end of the year, I\u2019ll be very f***ing disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n Reports of a $1bn court case<\/p>\n The next major number to be reported this week was $1bn, as The Telegraph<\/a> reported Warren is claiming that amount in lost income from Zuffa Boxing\u2019s owners, TKO and Sela. <\/p>\n Here, it is worth explaining that TKO is a combat-sports brand \u2013 the parent company of WWE and the UFC<\/a>, the latter of which\u2019s president is Dana White \u2013 and Sela is a Saudi events company. The faces of Zuffa Boxing are White and Alalshikh. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Promoter Frank Warren (left) with Saudi official Turki Alalshikh (Getty)<\/p>\n Per The Telegraph, Warren\u2019s company Queensberry is claiming that TKO and Sela breached contracts they had signed with him, going behind his back to form a partnership of their own. Queensberry is reportedly seeking up to $1bn (\u00a3740m) in compensation for income that the promotion claims it would have earned if the contracts had been honoured. Legal letters have reportedly been sent, and it is thought the case could end up with a formal claim being made in the High Court if there is no resolution. <\/p>\n Queensberry is said to have claimed that, in September 2023, it signed an exclusivity agreement with Sela, giving the Saudi firm access to Queensberry\u2019s insight into boxing. Queensberry is also believed to be claiming that it signed a separate contract with TKO, allowing the brand access to Queensberry\u2019s online data, including details of the Sela contract. The Telegraph reported that Warren did not sign any contracts with Alalshikh personally. <\/p>\n The Independent approached Queensberry, TKO and Sela for comment, and a spokesperson for Sela said: \u201cWe are disappointed by the unfounded claims brought by Queensberry and Frank Warren. We reject them in their entirety and are confident that the facts will fully vindicate our position.\u201d Meanwhile, Warren told the BBC<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s just a difference of opinion over the contracts that we signed, so that will just take its course. I can\u2019t make any comment on it. It is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n A bizarre response on X<\/p>\n Matters then became even more complicated. Later on Wednesday, the magazine The Ring \u2013 owned by Alalshikh \u2013 posted a controversial tweet, alleging the circulation of \u201crumours\u201d about Queensberry\u2019s business affairs. The Independent has approached Queensberry for comment on the post.<\/p>\n What next?<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have been linked for the best part of a decade (Getty)<\/p>\n Last weekend, in the wake of the Benn news, boxing insider Dan Rafael tweeted: \u201cIf you think s*** happened today just wait. Ain\u2019t seen nothing yet.\u201d It\u2019s unclear whether he was referring to the impending report of Warren\u2019s alleged lawsuit or whether something else is coming. But what could be bigger right now? <\/p>\n In January, Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s team director Sergey Lapin confirmed they been contacted by Zuffa<\/a>. Signing the pound-for-pound No 1<\/a> would be a huge statement, of course, yet Usyk left his longtime promoter Alex Krassyuk last year<\/a>, and he is late in his career now; while Usyk is the greatest talent that Zuffa could sign, such a move would lack the personal edge that made the Benn switch so captivating<\/a>.<\/p>\n Should Zuffa sign Fury, that too would be a seismic acquisition from a talent perspective, though the British star is older, like Usyk. Still, the end of a partnership with Warren would feel significant. <\/p>\n Perhaps the only signing that would blow up boxing\u2019s corner of the internet would be Anthony Joshua, another of Hearn\u2019s key names \u2013 his most important of all, actually. Although \u201cAJ\u201d and Benn have both spent their entire professional careers with Hearn, the promoter was quick to contrast the British boxers, saying: \u201cYou can\u2019t mention those in the same breath, for many reasons. Joshua is a different breed of class and loyalty.\u201d <\/p>\n Hypothetically, if Zuffa were to sign Fury and Joshua and make that long-awaited super fight \u2013 without Warren and Hearn involved \u2013 that would constitute genuinely shocking news. Or maybe the next big development won\u2019t pertain to the signing of a boxer, but to something more relevant to the sport\u2019s wider landscape. At this point, it feels fair to say that nothing is impossible. A new era has begun: an era of boxing civil war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-502978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502978","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=502978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Conor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Hearn-Benn.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Benn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Conor-Benn.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/urg1Pwi3-720.jpg\")
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