Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White put a halt to the rumors of a Zuffa Boxing offer to Anthony Joshua.
There’s no doubt that Joshua is one of the most polarizing figures in boxing today. The WBA Super, IBF and IBO heavyweight champion has a perfect record of 21-0. Joshua has put himself in a position to earn a significant amount of money for a showdown with Deontay Wilder.
Rumors of a $50 million per fight deal surfaced. The rumor claimed that Zuffa Boxing tried to snatch Joshua from Eddie Hearn. During the UFC Liverpool post-fight press conference, White said this was never the case (via Bloody Elbow):
“I never made him an offer ever. We were supposed to meet. We never met, we never talked money, we never did anything.”
As far as pulling Joshua away from Hearn is concerned, White said the opposite is true. He claims he wanted to work with Joshua and Hearn to make a strong promotional push in the United States.
“That isn’t even the kind of deal I was looking to structure. Because when we talked, [Joshua] had told me that he was going to stay with Eddie Hearn. He was never going to get rid of Eddie Hearn, and that was never the plan. It was never like I was trying to move in and steal him from Hearn. The deal was that I felt we could add a lot of value to them in the United States. So we could cut some kind of a deal in the US. He’s big in England, everyone knows who he is in England. And I have the machine to make him big in the United States. That was the plan.”
Do you think Anthony Joshua needs Zuffa Boxing to make some noise in the United States?
