Eddie Hearn says UFC president Dana White will make sport “Sexy” if he does officially enter boxing

By Danny Z | Contributing Writer

Photo: Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

NEW YORK — Just before his first official event within the United States’ market, promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing said in an interview that he likes the idea of UFC president Dana White possibly jumping into the boxing game after experiencing an event like Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Conor McGregor earlier this year.

Hearn, who is currently stateside for the middleweight clash between Daniel Jacobs and Luis Arias on HBO, announced back in September that he would be promoting in America in addition to his promotional ventures across Europe. Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) was announced as the first official signee of Matchroom USA, and also made the network jump from Showtime to HBO in hopes of securing a bout with either Gennady Golovkin or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

“All I’m doing is I’m raising blood pressures with promoters all over the U.S. right now,” Hearn said in the interview. “Lou DiBella, you know, he needs to be in the hospital this week watching his blood pressure for this week.”

The interview, which was conducted this week and can be seen here, also sees Hearn touch on the recent news of White’s boxing plans. Hearn, 38, who promotes the unified world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, said White will bring more publicity to the sport and make it “sexy.”

“It’s f**** great for boxing,” Hearn said of White coming in as a promoter. “A guy like Dana White coming in trying to raise the profile of the sport, make the sport bigger, make the nights bigger, make the sport sexy — that’s what we got to do. He has made UFC sexy, cool, a place to go with your friends, watch the sport, have a night out, have a drink. We got to do the same for boxing.”

Photo: Getty Images

Unlike Hearn, some of the other American boxing promoters are not sharing the same sentiment of White’s boxing plans. Bob Arum, who heads Top Rank and has historically had a longstanding feud with White for the past decade, said the UFC is “desperate” and have recently been experiencing low pay-per-view numbers throughout the last year. This, in addition to not having a “marquee star,” is what’s causing them [UFC] to enter the sport of boxing, Arum added.

With Hearn, who is already a prominent boxing promoter overseas, joining the ranks of the American landscape, this adds him to the list of the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Richard Schaefer (alongside Al Haymon), Lou DiBella, Tom Brown, and Arum who are some of the more well-known matchmakers in the sport. As for White, he is likely to utilize McGregor as the main attraction should he completely follow through with his boxing venture.

“The sport is great. It always has been, always will be,” Hearn said after endorsing White’s plans. “So, you’ve got the product. You’ve just got to rap it up in some kind of f****** blitzy, glitzy, glamorous kind of stuff, and you’ve got the perfect product.”

(Feature photo(s): Getty Images)