{"id":781658,"date":"2026-02-22T14:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/781658\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T14:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:05:22","slug":"dana-white-in-crude-outburst-at-eddie-hearn-in-escalating-feud-over-conor-benn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/781658\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana White in crude outburst at Eddie Hearn in escalating feud over Conor Benn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dana White crudely called Eddie Hearn a \u2018p****\u2019 as their feud escalates over Conor Benn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Benn left Hearn\u2019s Matchroom Boxing to join Zuffa Boxing<\/a>, which is run by rival White, on a one-fight deal.<\/p>\n

\"Conor<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Benn has joined Zuffa Boxing on a one-fight dealCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

This sparked a war of words between Matchroom chief Hearn and the UFC\u2019s top man.<\/p>\n

White suggested that coming into the sport was like ‘beating up babies’ at the press conference for Efe Ajagba’s victory over Charles Martin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hearn then hit back insisting that White has already been rattled<\/a> by his comments.<\/p>\n

The feud is continuing to escalate as White held his first press conference following the news after UFC Houston.<\/p>\n

Read more on boxingWhat did Dana White say?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you saw this week that I am really beating up babies. Is there a bigger p**** than Eddie Hearn?<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there a bigger p**** than Eddie Hearn? This guy\u2019s supposed to be your friend and you\u2019re f****** crying? He made more money, he\u2019s going to make more money and he had the right to match it. He couldn\u2019t match it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conor Benn speaks out<\/p>\n

The man at the centre of all this is British boxer Benn, who had been with Hearn for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

The Matchroom chief stuck by Benn during the doping scandal that threatened to derail his career.<\/p>\n

Hearn has also said that he helped him out financially too, reported to be in the region of \u00a3500,000.<\/p>\n

The one fight deal with Zuffa Boxing is said to be worth in the region of \u00a310m.<\/p>\n

\"Matchroom<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Hearn has not been happy with Benn defecting to Zuffa BoxingCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Benn told Boxing King Media<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m doing this for my family it\u2019s an offer you\u2019d be mentally ill to turn down, so for me, I\u2019m blessed to be in the position I\u2019m in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to be in the position I\u2019m in. My career\u2019s taken yet another turn in a direction that I didn\u2019t think it would turn into.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I wanna maintain my relationship with Matchroom, especially Eddie Hearn, Frank Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when it comes down to a decision that I need to make, whether it\u2019s easy or not or whether it\u2019s comfortable or not, it\u2019s a decision that I had to make for me and my family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 10 years\u2019 time, in 15 years\u2019 time when I\u2019m done and retired, will anybody care about me then? No, nobody will. Right now I\u2019m hot property, right now I\u2019m this, right now I\u2019m that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 10-15 years\u2019 time, when my kids are 20, when it\u2019s just me and my family sitting down somewhere quiet, is it gonna matter? Is anyone gonna care? No.<\/p>\n

\"Dana<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

White and Hearn were once on good terms – but that has soured over BennCredit: Conor Benn – Instagram<\/p>\n

\u201cWill another Conor Benn come along? Yes. So ultimately, I have to make the right decision for my family and everything they\u2019ve done for me. I will forever be grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYou can see my loyalty with my team as it is. I\u2019ve been with my whole team from day dot. Every single one of my team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t switch teams, I don\u2019t switch trainers, everyone\u2019s eating, everyone\u2019s happy, that\u2019s my team over the past 10 years. So that speaks volumes in itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately it was an extremely hard decision to make without a doubt. I mean, I\u2019ve been with my career and my team and my stable for 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cChange is never comfortable, but ultimately I\u2019m hoping Eddie is still in my corner, still with me till the wheels fall off, because I believe I\u2019ve got a strong friendship with Eddie.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut ultimately this is a decision that in 10 to 15 years\u2019 time, if I didn\u2019t take, I\u2019d regret it and any man out there that says otherwise, wouldn\u2019t be doing the right decision by him and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to Hearn<\/p>\n

Hearn also claimed that he was denied the chance to talk over the phone to Benn.<\/p>\n

But Benn said: But Benn said: \u201cI didn\u2019t choose not to speak to him, I didn\u2019t want to go into the details of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think things were very heated with the teams and knowing how I am as an individual. Would the call have been beneficial?<\/p>\n

\u201cWould the call have been great for us? I personally don\u2019t think it would have.<\/p>\n

\"Eddie<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Benn says he wants to maintain his relationship with HearnCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cBut once the dust had settled and it had calmed down, I messaged Eddie saying, \u2018I love you mate and this ain\u2019t the end of the road.\u2019<\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

\u201cThe journey does continue. But when things are heated, I\u2019ve said things in the moment from previous experiences where you know you regret saying them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy speak in the midst of hurt, ego, pride, anger. Nothing good comes from it. So I think we both could have dealt with it better privately.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dana White crudely called Eddie Hearn a \u2018p****\u2019 as their feud escalates over Conor Benn. Benn left Hearn\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,4496,21610,4778,228030,12434,10511,33048,79,16,15,7674,154040],"class_list":["post-781658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-conor-benn","tag-dana-white","tag-dana-white-eddie-hearn","tag-eddie-hearn","tag-hearn","tag-matchroom","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-white","tag-zuffa-boxing"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116114668305599014","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}