{"id":731213,"date":"2026-08-08T06:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/731213\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:28:10","slug":"malignaggi-hearn-and-warren-fell-for-zuffa-trojan-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/731213\/","title":{"rendered":"Malignaggi: Hearn And Warren Fell For Zuffa Trojan Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paulie Malignaggi believes Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren helped create their own competition by embracing Saudi investment in boxing.<\/p>\n

He argues that Hearn and Warren understood the risk but accepted the money anyway. Zuffa Boxing has since become another major player with substantial financial backing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think that the entrance of Turki Alalshikh and the promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren that worked with them and then got kicked in their ass afterwards, I think it shows you that there\u2019s a Trojan horse element to that other side trying to walk in,\u201d Malignaggi told Andrew McCart at iFL TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody in the business knew, and I think deep down Eddie and Frank were also, they\u2019re not dumb people. They\u2019re intelligent guys. So, I think they also knew, but they liked the money too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malignaggi sees Zuffa\u2019s position today as a consequence of decisions existing promoters made when Saudi investment began pouring into major fights, letting outside capital gain influence before expanding into direct competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey allowed this foreign entity, as far as outside the business, to enter the fray and then become their competition in a way,\u201d Malignaggi said.<\/p>\n

His criticism extends beyond the promoters. Malignaggi believes sanctioning bodies risk a similar fate by cooperating with Zuffa despite its earlier opposition to boxing\u2019s traditional governing structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey first announced that they were against the governing bodies, then they sort of started working with the governing bodies,\u201d Malignaggi said. \u201cIf I have the power to eliminate you, I\u2019m going to eliminate you. But if I don\u2019t right now, I\u2019ll play nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malignaggi summed up his position by arguing that immediate financial rewards may come with consequences for established players in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cShort-term greed can lead to long-term loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tom Galm is a boxing journalist who has covered the global fight landscape since 2014, specializing in heavyweight analysis, industry trends, and fighter psychology.<\/p>\n

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Last Updated on 2026\/08\/07 at 4:32 PM \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paulie Malignaggi believes Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren helped create their own competition by embracing Saudi investment in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-731213","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\/731213","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=731213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}