iFL TV<\/a>. \u201cLike, until Shakur\u2019s team called me, messaged me last night, I thought it was all just some kind of stunt for an announcement, because it was so bad, so embarrassing, so humiliating for Zuffa, that I thought it can\u2019t be real. Because it happened, and literally within 30 seconds I had 50 messages. \u2018Oh my God, have you seen this? Zuffa\u2019s finished. Zuffa\u2019s imploding. Dana White\u2019s head falling off.\u2019 And I thought, nah, this can\u2019t be right.<\/p>\n\u201cLike, how can you sign your most high-profile fighter, and then he leaves you without even fighting? I don\u2019t think, in the history of boxing, that has ever happened. Tell me a time where a promoter has signed a pound-for-pound great, the biggest signing they\u2019ve ever signed, and he has left before he\u2019s even fought. That has never happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Dana White says about the history that Zuffa is gonna make, the body of work that you\u2019re going to see by the end of the year, one thing I will give it to Zuffa: they have made history there by actually signing a fighter and never giving him a fight. So that\u2019s some great body of work there.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course we\u2019re going to dine out on it, aren\u2019t we? Because they would do the same thing. I\u2019m not going to sit here and say, \u2018Ha ha, you lot are finished. Zuffa\u2019s done. You\u2019re an embarrassment. You got no credibility with fighters or fans. You haven\u2019t done a show in America since July, and you\u2019ve done some rank shows in the U.K. You\u2019ve got nothing planned for the rest of the year. I think you\u2019ve given up before you\u2019ve started.\u2019 I\u2019m not gonna say any of that. But obviously, at the same time, you\u2019ve got to be looking at it and smirking and going, \u2018This is f*cking easy work, baby.\u2019 I mean, what is going on?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearn and White have been feuding for much of 2026, since White moved into The Sweet Science with Zuffa Boxing. Hearn has repeatedly said that White and Zuffa don\u2019t understand the boxing business, and in the wake of this latest development, he\u2019s taking a victory lap.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cDon\u2019t put your career and your legacy in the hands of non-boxing people that have no idea what they\u2019re doing. And Devin Haney is as smart as they come, because you know what? Something in his mind, something in his belly said, \u2018This ain\u2019t the move for me,\u2019 and he went a done a deal with DAZN, and now Shakur Stevenson will probably do the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cDevin Haney has not boxed since November 2025. Shakur Stevenson has not boxed since January 2026. These are the pound-for-pound greats of the sport. Come on, boys, let\u2019s get active. Let\u2019s fight each other. Don\u2019t just look at some stupid offer that doesn\u2019t make sense to lure you in, and then what? You sign with them, and four months later you don\u2019t even have a fight, or even a fight scheduled.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo listen, fair play to Shakur Stevenson, because he had the balls to go, \u2018This is not the place for me. These people, they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing. I need to get out before my career is ruined.\u2019 And he made that move, and his team made that move, and now he\u2019s got to see what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Stevenson release is just the latest in a tough run for Zuffa. The promotion has struggled to gain traction in the boxing community, and one of its biggest signings, Conor Benn \u2014 who previously was promoted by Hearn \u2014 got destroyed by Ryan Garcia in their fight in September.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you sign Conor Benn, get him smashed to pieces,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cYou sign Shakur Stevenson, and you can\u2019t even deliver him a fight. They have not done a show in America for five months, and they won\u2019t do one for six or seven months in America. Please, somebody, play those interviews now and tell me, \u2018Judge us by the end of the year and watch our body of work.\u2019 Awful. Disaster. Monstrosity. Embarrassment. Capitulation. Capillary-busting. Blood pressure-rushing. And in the words of one of my old nemeses, I think just 10 months in, it\u2019s all over, rover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearn doesn\u2019t quite believe that Zuffa Boxing is done. The promotion is co-owned by Turki Alalshikh and Sela, the Saudi Arabian entertainment company. As such, they have plenty of funds to stay active in boxing, but Hearn believes this will be a big setback.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll be back, but they\u2019ve shown their true colors,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cThey know nothing about boxing, they know nothing about developing the career of a fighter, and if you sign with Zuffa boxing, you might as well get your legacy, rip it up, and put it in the bin. That\u2019s the reality. So, if you want to do that for a few quid, and maybe fight once a year \u2014or maybe in the case of Shakur Stevenson, not even fight \u2014 no problem. You take the leap.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn is having a good day. On Monday, pound-for-pound boxing great Shakur Stevenson secured his release from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,49,48,701,82],"class_list":["post-940556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-latest-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940556","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=940556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}