{"id":699414,"date":"2026-07-19T03:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T03:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/699414\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T03:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T03:56:16","slug":"eddie-hearn-says-zuffa-overpaid-shakur-stevenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/699414\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn Says Zuffa Overpaid Shakur Stevenson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxingnews24.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add EBoxing News 24as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqLAgKIiZDQklTRmdnTWFoSUtFR0p2ZUdsdVoyNWxkM015TkM1amIyMG9BQVAB?ceid=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow Boxing News 24 on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Shakur recently signed with Zuffa in one of the promotion\u2019s biggest moves to date, joining a growing roster assembled by Dana White, Nick Khan and Turki Alalshikh. While Hearn praised Shakur for securing a lucrative payday, he questioned whether the business model is sustainable, saying Zuffa is paying a premium to convince fighters to trade championship legacy for financial security.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s crazy, but it\u2019s suicide,\u201d Hearn told Fight Hub TV. \u201cYou can play that game when you try and break into a market. We did it with DAZN. You have to do it because what you\u2019re doing is you\u2019re taking away legacy for the fighter in return for money. The only way you do that is by drastically overpaying them. They\u2019re saying, basically, you can\u2019t fight for belts, you can\u2019t make history, but we\u2019re going to give you a load of money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hearn also suggested Shakur received an enormous financial package, hinting that the former multi-division champion landed an eight-figure deal after being asked whether the contract exceeded seven figures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know what Shakur is getting. He\u2019s crazy,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cMore than eight figures. Listen, Shakur is an unbelievable fighter, but there\u2019s a value to these guys. By the way, let him make it. I don\u2019t begrudge Shakur Stevenson. I know what legacy means to Shakur, but he\u2019s already got a lot of legacy. I would have liked to see him go on and pick up the other belts, but he\u2019s obviously got an opportunity that was too good to turn down. Good luck to him. It\u2019s a tough sport. Let him go and earn his money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although Hearn questioned Zuffa\u2019s spending strategy, he made it clear his criticism was directed at the business model rather than Stevenson. In his view, the unbeaten star simply accepted an offer that few fighters would refuse, even if it meant stepping away from the traditional pursuit of additional world titles and undisputed championships.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Youtube video\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" nopin=\"nopin\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784433376_386_hqdefault.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur recently signed with Zuffa in one of the promotion\u2019s biggest moves to date, joining a growing roster&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-699414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699414","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=699414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}