{"id":196481,"date":"2025-10-13T06:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T06:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/196481\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T06:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T06:21:07","slug":"eddie-hearn-rips-dana-white-over-proposed-muhammad-ali-act-change-fake-belts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/196481\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn Rips Dana White Over Proposed Muhammad Ali Act Change, ‘Fake Belts’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Hearn half-jokingly anointed Jaron \u201cBoots\u201d Ennis boxing\u2019s highest-paid fighter per second after his two-minute demolition of Uisma Lima<\/a> on Saturday night in Philadelphia.
Ennis<\/a>\u2019 promoter requested a discount once Ennis easily disposed of Lima in their fight for the WBA interim super welterweight title at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Hearn laughed it off when an incredulous Ennis interjected and noted the 28-year-old deserves to be well compensated.
Matchroom Boxing\u2019s chairman took a much more serious tone when Dana White\u2019s name was mentioned during Ennis\u2019 post-fight press conference. Hearn made it clear he has no interest in doing business with Zuffa Boxing, the new promotional company<\/a> UFC\u2019s president and CEO has guided into the marketplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re real boxing,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cI\u2019m serious. We don\u2019t wanna change the ring, we don\u2019t wanna change the Muhammad Ali Act. This is how we work, with an open book, with Boots and with [Ennis\u2019 adviser] Everett [McNeely] and the team. I don\u2019t wanna hide the revenue from the show. These guys get to see it, and Boots is making a lotta money. And he deserves a lotta money, because he\u2019s a star.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearn has been critical of the economic model Zuffa Boxing plans to implement in boxing because he doesn\u2019t believe the UFC\u2019s standard suits boxing. The British promoter doesn\u2019t think boxing needs more titles, either, despite Zuffa Boxing\u2019s plan to award its own belts for fights on its cards.<\/p>\n

Paramount announced September 29 that Paramount+ will stream monthly Zuffa Boxing shows<\/a> starting in January as part of a long-term agreement. CBS, which Paramount also owns, could eventually broadcast Zuffa Boxing events on network television in the United States as well.<\/p>\n

Hearn has been a vocal opponent of Zuffa Boxing\u2019s practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn boxing, the majority of the revenue from the show goes to the fighter,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cIn MMA, the majority of revenue from the show goes to the promoter. Good luck to [White]. I wouldn\u2019t moan. But that\u2019s not how we work in boxing. And I\u2019m not interested in a fake belt. I\u2019m not interested in changing the Muhammad Ali Act. I\u2019m not interested in changing the shape of the ring or the rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m interested in is the greatness of the sport of boxing. And what you\u2019re looking at here [Ennis] is the greatness of the sport of boxing. I wanna see fighters like Boots, who I believe can go down as generational greats, like Hagler, like Hearns, like Whitaker, like all these great fighters \u2013 he is of the same ability. And our belts matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn half-jokingly anointed Jaron \u201cBoots\u201d Ennis boxing\u2019s highest-paid fighter per second after his two-minute demolition of Uisma…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":{"0":"post-196481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-schedule","18":"tag-boxing-videos","19":"tag-boxing-results","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-unitedkingdom","37":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}