Promoter Eddie Hearn believes Zuffa Boxing was ‘bullied’ into partnering with Golden Boy Promotions for the upcoming Ryan Garcia-Conor Benn event. He argues the move proves that boxing’s established business structure cannot be controlled by a single entity in the way the UFC is.
Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, entered the sport with a stated intention to operate independently, avoiding the co-promotions and sanctioning body title fights that are common in boxing. However, Hearn points to the September 12 welterweight title fight as a clear reversal of that policy. The event is a co-promotion with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, and Garcia’s WBC title will be on the line. Hearn suggested the dynamic between Zuffa CEO Dana White and De La Hoya makes the partnership one of necessity, not choice.
Hearn explained that this is the fundamental nature of the sport’s business. “But this is how boxing works. Sometimes you don’t get like in an ideal world probably we wouldn’t do co-promotions with anybody because you’d rather just do it on your own. But boxing doesn’t work like that. It’s never worked like that,” he said.
The Matchroom Boxing chairman also highlighted Zuffa’s original stance on world championship organisations. He referenced previous testimony from executive Nick Khan, which was critical of the existing system. “They said they’re not doing any world championship fights. In fact, Nick Khan stood on the stand to try and abolish the Muhammad Ali Act and belittle Mauricio Sulaiman,” Hearn stated.
He contrasted that past position with the reality of the upcoming promotion. “Well, guess what? On September the 12th, Mauricio Sulaiman will be in the ring on their show, and they’ll all have to pay homage to the WBC championship because you can’t just get rid of these things.”
Ultimately, Hearn argues that established promoters and fighters hold too much power for one company to dominate the sport. The need to work with De La Hoya to make the Garcia fight is, in his view, the primary example of this reality. “Oscar De La Hoya was going to let Ryan Garcia just poodle on over to do a Zuffa show? No chance. They’re control freaks, and you can’t control boxing.”
