{"id":527046,"date":"2026-03-10T15:27:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/527046\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T15:27:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:27:19","slug":"eddie-hearn-says-turki-alalshikh-will-be-completely-unimpressed-by-zuffa-boxings-first-four-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/527046\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn Says Turki Alalshikh Will Be \u2018Completely Unimpressed\u2019 by Zuffa Boxing\u2019s First Four Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matchroom Sport chairman Eddie Hearn<\/a> said Turki Alalshikh<\/a>, the Saudi General Entertainment Authority chief and boxing\u2019s most powerful financial backer, would be \u201ccompletely unimpressed\u201d by what Zuffa Boxing has produced so far, escalating his war of words with Dana White over the direction of the sport\u2019s biggest-money era.<\/p>\n

Hearn\u2019s comments, made in an interview with Boxing Social<\/a>, came after Zuffa Boxing staged four consecutive cards at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, the compact studio venue formerly used for behind-closed-doors UFC events. By contrast, Alalshikh\u2019s Riyadh Season brand has bankrolled undisputed heavyweight title fights, stadium sellouts and deep undercards featuring multiple world championship bouts over the past two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be sitting there watching the Zuffa shows completely unimpressed,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cHe loves big shows. He loves great fights. He loves deep cards, big names, sold-out stadiums, and the buzz of boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearn went further, directly questioning the scale of White\u2019s operation relative to the UFC boss\u2019s public claims of transforming the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s spinning a narrative like he\u2019s created these unbelievable blockbuster shows in stadiums. He ain\u2019t out the garage yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterally, four shows in, and it\u2019s absolutely bang-average content,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cBoxing\u2019s not for him. It\u2019s the worst business in the world\u2026 he cannot lace my boots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zuffa Boxing launched on January 23 with Callum Walsh headlining against Carlos Ocampo at the Meta APEX, part of a reported $7.7 billion broadcast deal between TKO Group Holdings and Paramount\/CBS. The promotion has since staged cards featuring Jose Valenzuela, Efe Ajagba and, most recently, former cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs), who defeated Brandon Glanton by unanimous decision in March. All four events were held at the same Las Vegas studio venue.<\/p>\n

White has acknowledged the early-stage nature of the rollout. Speaking after the inaugural card<\/a>, he said the fights \u201cwere great\u201d but that the promotion has \u201ca lot of work to do.\u201d He has consistently framed the project as a long-term build, telling reporters<\/a> that while it \u201ctook 25 years to get the UFC to where it is today\u2026 we\u2019ll do it in much less time on the boxing side.\u201d<\/p>\n

White has also fired back at Hearn directly, calling established promoters \u201cf***ing terrible\u201d and describing the boxing industry as \u201crinky dink.\u201d<\/p>\n

The personal animosity between the two has been fuelled by a series of talent moves. Conor Benn, previously one of Matchroom\u2019s headline fighters, defected to Zuffa Boxing in early 2026 in what Hearn described as a \u201cstunning\u201d break-up. Opetaia, who had been associated with Matchroom, also signed a deal to headline under White\u2019s banner. In the other direction, UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall signed with Hearn\u2019s talent agency for representation inside and outside the Octagon.<\/p>\n

All this plays out under the influence of Alalshikh, whose financial backing has reshaped elite matchmaking. The Saudi official has positioned himself as willing to work with any promoter who delivers premium content, telling reporters<\/a> that \u201cthe market is huge, and no one can delete anyone from this market.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the same, Alalshikh has used social media to needle Hearn. After Hearn publicly called Alalshikh White\u2019s \u201cnew daddy,\u201d the GEA chairman responded on social media: \u201cEddie, come and put your head on the chest of your father, I will give you a warm hug. The world is filled with evil people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearn, speaking separately about the dynamic with Alalshikh<\/a>, offered a blunt assessment of how the Saudi power broker operates: \u201cTurki is the king of fery, he loves it\u2026 He just says, \u2018Whatever suits me, I will do. So when you\u2019ve got something that suits me, we\u2019ll do business. And if you haven\u2019t, I\u2019ll most likely f you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

TKO Group Holdings signed a multi-year partnership with Sela, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund, in March 2025 to establish a boxing league. Alalshikh has said the relationship between Riyadh Season and existing promoters will continue \u201cat least for the next one or two years,\u201d leaving all parties competing for Saudi-funded slots on the global calendar.<\/p>\n

Zuffa Boxing\u2019s next card has not yet been formally announced. White\u2019s promotion remains in its building phase at the Meta APEX while Hearn and Matchroom continue to collaborate with Alalshikh on upcoming Riyadh Season events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matchroom Sport chairman Eddie Hearn said Turki Alalshikh, the Saudi General Entertainment Authority chief and boxing\u2019s most powerful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-527046","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\/527046","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=527046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}