Dana White and Zuffa Boxing just snatched up COnor Benn from right under Eddie Hearn's nose.. The Boxing War has OFFICIALLY begun!!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh my goodness, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the
Waycots Dept. Presented by The Ring Magazine and Boxing officially
just went to war. If you guys don't know, the
sport of boxing has entered a new era, and we
all should know by now. That means the introduction of
ZUFA Boxing and the potential of the sanctioning bodies, other promoters,
(00:23):
fighters moving left and right, and complete chaos throughout the sport.
We knew this was coming when Dana White got into boxing,
but we maybe didn't know what was going to be
this fast. Because as of about five minutes ago, as
right as I'm about to go over and watch the
Mario Barrios Ryan Garcia Wayns, the gauntlet was just dropped.
(00:44):
Connor Benn has signed to Zoofa Boxing. That's right, one
of Mattroom's key stable members you had at Matchroom, Anthony Joshua,
Katie Taylor and Connor Benn. That's been the stable for
Eddie Hearn to essentially boost Matchroom up through the next
generation and kind of carry that torch and now his
biggest cash cow outside of I would say Anthony Joshua
(01:06):
just jumped shit to not only a different promoter, but
a promoter he's been going back and forth with the
last couple of weeks Dana White, who's gone back and
forth with Eddie Hearn. You can see sides are being taken.
On this side you have Turkey Ala Ship, Dana White, Sella,
Nick Con Paramount plus maybe even Netflix. And on the
other side you have Eddie Hearn, the Zone, Anthony Joshua,
(01:29):
Katie Taylor, you know, Frank Warren, what's left of Golden Boy.
You're seeing a civil war. And just as a couple
of days ago, this is what Dana White was saying.
Is this beef between Dana and Eddie Hearn ZUFA Boxing
matchroom has started to get more and more intense. This
is what Dana had to say just a couple of
days ago. It was already gonna make a video about this,
(01:50):
but now the storyline gets even juice here. Let's take
a listen.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Then he pushed back, this is like beating up babies.
I feel like I came in and I'm beating up babies.
I expected more.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Do you see now Dana's smiling here, but do you
see him laughing? Do you see him joking about this?
Comment about beating up babies. He is absolutely going for
the neck of the sport of boxing right now. It
was a very quiet entry from ZUFA and so far
it hasn't been a lot of you know, big time plays. Yes,
the Canelo and Crawford was promoted by Dana White alongside
(02:24):
Turkey Ella Shake on Netflix. That was a big time entry.
But as far as ZUFA Boxing's concerned, they've been a
lot of shows in the UFCPI and not, you know,
not in front of a lot of people. You could
tell something was built. And seeing the ZUFAH shows, they
look a lot like the UFC. And we know that
the UFC took over the sport of MMA and did
it relatively easily through Yes, the finance of the Fertida Brothers,
(02:45):
but the vision of Dana White, Turkeylla Shak. Right, here's
same thing, the finance of Sela, the finance of Turkey
Ella Shake, vision of Dana White is starting to take
place here in ZUFA. Let's keep going.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I expected some pushback. I expected, I expect did some.
I don't know them gonna be more game this. They're
all way out of their league, like absolutely positively out
of their league.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I told you this was gonna happen. Go back and
find the video where Dana White and ZUFA officially announced
they were getting into boxing. I told you it was
going to change the sport. I told you they were
probably gonna take over the sport. Now that's not happening yet.
This today is a massive, massive, astonishing shocking. I never
would have thought type of acquisition for ZUOFA getting Connor Ben. Again,
(03:35):
we'll get to that in a second. But I told
you when Dana White started talking about getting into boxing,
he kept saying, this is a sport that it's killed itself.
This is a sport that has been mismanaged, misrun, and
because of it, it's going to make it that much
easier for us to come in and do what we'd like.
And again he was very coy about that early on,
but Turkey Ella Shak was turk Yllashak was saying stuff like, yeah,
we're gonna take this sport over. That seems to be
(03:58):
now Dana talking more brash, more in boldened to say
things like this like I expected more of a fun
These guys have no idea what's coming, and now we're
seeing it.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Eddie Hearn says, all, this guy's a visionary or you know,
you know, the guy's been in boxing forever. I look
at him like most politicians. You've done nothing in the
sport except stay in the lane and you know, play
by all the rules and you know, ride right along
with what's but you're you ended up becoming part of
the problem. Is what happened. And I don't want to
(04:30):
sit here and smash Eddie Hearn or anything else. But
Eddie Hearn works for his dad, you know what I mean.
He works for dad, and you know, I don't think
he's come in and ever had any type of vision
whereas we do. And we're gonna We're going to change
the entire sport.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Do you understand how personal Dana White just made this
entire thing. This is after their fourth zoofa show. He
is going directly at Eddie Hearn. This was a couple
of days ago where he said these guys don't have
and I disagree with him. I think Eddie earned has
a great vision for the sport, and I think what
he's doing with Matchroom, their new deal with his own
is a big deal. But Dana is operating on a
different wavelength. Clearly. And when he says that Eddie is
(05:11):
only in this sport because he works for his daddy,
that's not only a personal shot, but that's a declaration
of war to me. That says, listen, I'm now ready
to play at the highest level. I'm ready to play
the game. ZUFA doesn't have like a massive event just yet,
but they are essentially signaling that they are ready to
play with the big boys right out of the gate,
because he's going after Eddie Hearn, who is the biggest promoter.
(05:35):
I would say, by himself, solo dolo, maybe him and
Frank in boxing right or they were until Dana White
decided to get into the sport. And you hear that
the verbidge playing by the rules status quo, you became
part of the problem. They definitely had a plan, and
Dana started talking like this this week because he knew
he had something under the sleeve. I don't have any
sleeves on, but you get the point. And none of
(05:55):
us saw this coming.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I understand the people who are the status quo in
boxing don't like it, but it doesn't mean they can't
still do their thing. If your thing is as good
as you think it is, and you are as good
as you think you are, then do your thing. Good
luck to you. I'm gonna do my thing, and they're
gonna do theirs. Eddie Hern and his dad have a
lot of money. You know. It's not like they can't compete.
(06:18):
They can't compete because they don't know how to compete.
There's no vision there, you know. I don't know how
else to explain it other than that. And listen, I'm
sitting here my third fight in. I mean, either right
or I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Now again, We'll get back to the money talk in
a second, because the money talk is a big part
of this. Let's be honest. You guys know that that
my show is licensed by the Ring magazine, but we
all know that they have moneyed to spend. And when
we start talking about daddy's and who's in the business,
I don't know if Eddie and his dad can keep
up dollar for dollar. As a matter of fact, it's
(06:56):
not that I don't know. I know they can't. With
turkeyella shit and his investment is a in sella and
their investment is I know that's not true. They can't.
So when Dana's talking about competing, yeah, he is competing
with a loaded deck, right, he has a lot more
things to throw out there to get these massive signings.
And Connor Bin's the first massive name signing. But they
also have gio Opataiah, the best probably boxer on their roster,
(07:18):
not even probably the best boxer on their rosters, Giopataiah,
the best cruiser weight on the planet. So now you
have Opataiah and you have Connor Benn. But before we
get I know, I'm taking the long scenic rout here,
before we get to that, did Dana know then? This
was on February fifteenth, five days ago. Did he know
then that this was coming down the line? He was
sending a shot at Eddie knowing something that Eddie didn't,
because at the time it just seemed like trash talk.
(07:40):
At the time, it just seemed like a declaration we're
in this game you're gonna have to deal with. But
now it seems like premonition. Now it seems like foresight
and telling the future to Eddie, Like, buddy, not only
are we saying you don't know what you're doing, or
not only are we saying you're not equipped for this war,
but we're about to show you. I don't know if
Eddie knew this was coming either, because here is his
response to Day just a couple of days later.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Dana, Why yeah, my new mate, Josh Barry Hearn's son, we've.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Got him already.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
What did it take a month to allow him to
get well? That's I mean, that's a sick mind for one.
I don't know what the fuck he was talking about there.
That's quite quite disturbing. If I'm honest with you, it's
very strange. Because I've got to be honest with you.
I wouldn't say up my ass. But Dane has always
been so complimentary about us as a company and me
(08:29):
as a promoter. But to say that I don't have
any vision, it's really strike strange. I mean, right now,
when you talk about Zuffer's or wherever it's called, when
you talk about their vision, what's their vision?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
What game?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Max Kellerman to tay Her.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
We'll get into this second. But watching this now, after
learning that Connor Benn has just jumped ship from mattro
it's not a great look for Eddie. This At the
time when Eddie put this out, or when he did
this interview with with Arlie Parsons, it was a ten
a to Eddie, he clappen back at Dana. We didn't
know if Dana had any It seems like Eddie didn't
know that this was going on behind his bat And
(09:07):
that's what makes this even worse. It's like, damn, because
had nothing been different, had Connor still been with mattrim
all the things that he's saying here are good joust
back and forth, verbal, you know, shots across the back.
But now knowing the reality that Connor Benn was working
on a deal with Dana White this entire time, and
EDI's like, well, I don't have any vision, what are
you talking about? Kind of proves him not right, but
(09:28):
kind of shows that Dana was not playing above board.
He was playing dirty and he went behind your back
like a swing dancer.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Everyone that Callum Wolf, she's the next Roy Jones or
putting Charles Martin on a headline show on a Sunday
night in front of one hundred and twenty six people,
and you carry you in a ring that looks like
you just got it out of a local club show.
Who's the fucking vision?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Is that? Oh best?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
They'll oh no, no, it's about it's that fun look
at the vision. That's not vision.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
That's control it is, but it's both to me because
what you've seen over last couple of weeks, really really
over the last couple of months, is that this idea
that you know, fighters grow up wanting to fight for
the WBC, the WBC, the WBA, the WBO, the IBF.
It's bullshit. And I know that boxing historians are gonna
(10:14):
say that's shortsighted and that I didn't understand the history
of the sport to be saying that, But look at
what these sanctioning body heads are doing. They're begging for
money from fighters, even if they're not defending that belt.
They are begging for their percentage. This is the only
service they seem to provide. And then when you see
what those potential funds are used for. Hell, I'm at
the Bryan Garcia Mario Barrios fight. I've seen Ricio Suliman
(10:37):
hold up that stupid ass forty thousand dollars chain talking
about the winner gets this. Who gives a shit. We
don't care if you get them a nice chain, or
if you redo the belt for the fiftieth time, or
because there's four sanctioning bodies, they mean they have to
go win all four belts to be the real chance,
to be the undisputed chance. We have four champions walking
around calling themselves the world champions, and it dissuades the
common fan from watching and understanding who the real champ
(10:59):
is because, for the most part, up until recently Turke
Yella Shake getting into the sport, we haven't seen best
fight best. We haven't seen fighters take risks because they
don't have to. They can hold their belt, they can
fight their mandatory, they can drop their belt, go get
a different belt. Still be a world champ. Not fight
the toughest guy, not fight the number one, not fight
the undisputed. I'm not saying the Zuppa belt is going
to be the most world recognized belt anytime soon. But
(11:22):
what it will do is that he said there, it
will create control of the narrative. It'll create control of
the sport in terms of what a champion is, which
is the one singular best in the world. And the
sanctioning bodies have themselves to blame here, and I'm talking
about all four rating around like their belt's the best,
and this is why then if you don't fight for
(11:42):
their belt or you don't pay your sanctioning fee, they're
gonna pull your belt and onto the next and fighters
are starting to say, we don't care. Chakor doesn't care,
Terence Crawford doesn't care, Keshan Davis doesn't care. How many
more guys are gonna start to take that pattern because
the best in the world isn't determined by the color
of the belt, by who you beat. Are you the
baddest on the planet for your weight class? So Eddie's right.
(12:04):
It does create control and ZUPFA will operate not just
as a promotion but as a league I assume, which
is gonna be an interesting thing because how are they
going to do business with people outside of it. I
don't know any of these ins and outs yet. I
don't know. Is Jaiopataia gonna be, you know, the ZUFFA
champion and for go the rest of his belts?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I don't know, because the reality is when he says
we can't compete, they can't compete in this cutthroat world
of boxing because it's a horrible world, and they don't.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Want to compete. They want to create their own world.
But listen, I mean, yeah, that's true. They're creating their
own thing because boxing, to me, I agree with Dana
on this is broken. It's fundamentally broken. It's so scattered
and it's spread out so thin, through so many weight divisions,
through so many champions and so many belts, that it's
(12:48):
hard to get a casual audience to invest into the
sport when they don't know who the champion is, when
there's so many weight classes that there's tons of people
fighting that you have never heard of, champions you've never
heard of. You can't go into the UFC's rolodex and
find a champion you haven't heard of. If you're a
casual fan of MMA, you know the champion, you know
past champions, you know women's champion. And in boxing, yes
(13:10):
it's a bigger sport with more people taking part in
different areas, and yes that means more opportunities, which I'm
a fan of. But the point is there is a
fundamental problem. The system in boxing is broken. And while
Eddie is right that ZUFA is not gonna play the
same game that everybody else has been playing, and yes
that's gonna mean a whole separate Aliact revision, it's also
(13:31):
gonna mean they don't have to compete in your game.
But they are going to compete for your talent. They
have no talent. Whether you're ZUFA or Matchroom or anybody else,
your business is broken. Man.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
When you compare Mattrium shows to ZUFA shows, quite frankly,
ZUFA shows are absolute complete dogshita. They're gonna get better
and they're gonna sign some big fires.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
They just they've done three shows. That's yeah. That's the
tough part is like he's right, compared to Mattroom shows,
ZUFA hasn't done anything. He was absolutely right when he
said this. But they're only done three shows and.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
They're going to spunk some money. They're going to waste
some money. I've said it before. They're clever people, but
right now they're trying to manipulate fight fans and they
don't understand how intelligent fight fans are when it comes
to boxing.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
You can't create these cards.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
And tell everyone it's the best feed of best because
it's quite frankly not. And the reality is, yes, I
do work for my dad, but guess what dad. Dana
White has worked for his daddy for a long time.
The Fatisa Brothers, that's who he worked for. And right now,
Dana White's got a new daddy and his name is
Turkey out of Shak. Turkey out of Shake. He's Dana
(14:35):
White's puppy and he has got to do whatever he's
told because he works for TKO, which is owned by
Seller and soweda shake. So it took him a nanosecond
to get personal. But that's because right now he's right
at the bottom of the par in terms of quality
as a boxing from Earth Bad.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, he's right, but it may not be there for
a very long because he just took one of your
biggest talent. Again, this is this is Watching this in
retrospect for Eddie is a little bit damaging because Number one,
while yes, you can say Turkey alas Shake is the
only reason Dana White is in boxing, that's one hundred
percent clear, but Turkeylla Shake is also one of the
(15:17):
big benefactors of Eddie Hearn right, not just and Barry Hearn,
not just on the boxing side, but on the dart side,
on the snooker side, Turkey Alla Shak has funded a
lot of Eddie Hearn's business as well. So I don't
know who's daddy is who, Like Turkey Ala Shake is
funding both sides of this this is like some crazy
political wartime like CIA move from Turkey to fund both
(15:40):
sides of the war and have them go at it.
But I think if I had to say which side
of this Turkeyla Shake is on, He's on the side
of ZUFA boxing Dana White. And that's I think that's
where his primary investment is because I think SELA does
own sixty percent of ZUFA. So anyway, that was the response,
and at the time it was a good response from
Eddie Hearn, right sticking it on Dana saying, hey, you know,
(16:00):
you're nobody in this game yet. And that was true
up until twenty minutes ago. Because look at this, and
I'm telling you guys, no one predicted this. No one
had any idea that Connor Benn was jumping ship from
Eddie Hearn And here he is shaking hands with Dana White.
I think this is at the UFCPI I think this
is in Vegas and there he is, man, the new
(16:23):
signee of ZUFA Boxing. Unbelievable. This was Eddie's dude, man,
you I don't even have words for this. When Connor
Benn came into boxing and he started getting promoted by
Eddie hearn Eddie had his back through everything. I'm talking
the drug tests, the failures, the freaking time off when
(16:48):
he was at his lowest. He was with him, He
stuck with him, he had his back. And again I'm
not saying this is just business. At the end of
the day, I'm not saying Connor is wrong for leaving.
Won't see how much notice Eddie had of Connor Lee.
That'll be a huge, huge thing. Like if Connor just
straight up didn't say a word and this is how
Eddie found out, that's a problem. But it's just business
(17:08):
and I'm just saying it's it's shocking to see Connor
not only sign with ZUFA, but Zuofa is a American
boxing promotion. Not to say they only signed Americans because
they signed Jio Pataiah now Connor Benn. But usually you
would think, with the fan base he already has in
the UK that that would be where he'd make his
his stable, right Matchroom being a UK juggernaut right now
(17:30):
because boxer's fucked off, they're gone. If Queensberry there makes sense,
but then it's Mattroom or vice versa. But he decided
to go with ZUFA, and I have to think that
the money was just too good to pass up. The
opportunities were just too good to pass up. And speaking
of the opportunities, that's where a bit of a question
mark comes into play, because what does this mean? All
(17:50):
Connor Ben had said over the last few months is
that he wants a shot at the world title, he
wants a shot at becoming great. He wants to shot
at Ryan Garcia, he wants it's a shot at Shakur Stevenson,
he wants a shot at Devin Haney. Are we about
to see some of these guys signing with ZUFA or
is ZUFA gonna work with some of these other promoters?
I don't know. I don't know where that whole intersection
(18:12):
crosses over, but it starts to give some pretty interesting
hints of information to be like, well, what are we
gonna see? Are there more signings to come? Because this
is massive? Okay, so now we hear from Chris Mannix,
this is very interesting. Connor Ben's deal with ZUPA Boxing
is a one fight, eight figure deal. Okay, this puts
some interesting spin on what we're reading now. So Connor
(18:34):
Benn is only signing a one fight deal with ZUFA.
It's life changing money and he only is under contract
for one fight, so that that does change a little
bit of the discussion as far as what potentially is
gonna go on here because how much is Connor going
to really stay with ZUFA. Here's him taking a picture
with Keith Connelly as manager. There he is Nick con
(18:54):
the man behind the scenes that gets this shit done,
along with Dana White obviously, but this is big dude.
Connor been messaged Eddie Hearn after the split. After a
decade in the matter room, Ben thanks Eddie Hearn and
the team for guiding him through the pro turning him
pro to headlining stadium show standing shoulder to shouldered into
tough times as well as the highs. He says Zuper
presented an opportunity he simply couldn't refuse and opes Eddie
(19:16):
can still be a part of his team as the
partnership evolves. I want the legacy fights, the biggest nights,
the biggest stages. I fear no man at any weight.
I'm in my prime. I fear no man at any weight.
That's the thing. I'm trying to figure out. Who's it
gonna be. It's gonna go up, It's gonna go down
the Callum Walsh fight. There's no way they would try
to push Connor into a Callum Walsh fight for eight figures, right,
(19:37):
this comes out of nowhere. But Connor has been calling
for the Chakor fight, and we know Shakor is with
Jay Prince as a manager. I'm not sure who he's
promoted by right now, if he even has one, So
maybe that could be something where they work out something
with Shakor. He hasn't been a fan of the belts.
I don't know though, again how that would go. Or
Ryan Garcia this whole week has been talking about really
not this week, but build up, how he only has
(19:58):
a couple of fights left or this may be his
last fight with Golden Boy. Oscar has said differently, but
this came out of nowhere. Could Dana be talking to
Ryan Garcia while he's in Vegas by the way, about
potentially the idea to jump over to ZUFA and have
a super fight if he is able to get the
belt with Connor. Ben not again that he would bring
the WBC belt over, but he would be an established
(20:18):
world champion drop the WBC belt, fight for the ZUFA belt.
The possibilities are endless. This is breaking news. I had
to get it to you guys. Let me know what
you think in the meantime, because this is this is massive.
The one fight deal is very interesting. Connor could come
over and then go back to Eddie right after and
it just be peaches, but very very interesting.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Yes, people say, just finished training again, hoggrafter at the
UFC facility?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
What facility? More importantly, I'm excited about his future. Let's
go interesting, man. Like I said, the gauntlet has been
thrown down, the battle lines have been drawn. Boxing is
in an all out war, and ZUFA takes the first
shot across the bout A signed Connor Benn. It's a
one fight, eight figure deal. Who's he fight? Who else
(21:04):
is coming down the line? Look at all of your
favorite fighters right now, who aren't necessarily talking about their
deals with their promoters, or they are talking about the
deals but talking about how they're about to be done
with them. No one is off the board, it seems
like so I don't know who they could be fighting
with Connor Benn, But I'm talking about all weight divisions.
It's all open season and we're about to get a
(21:25):
war of a lifetime. What happens next, We have those answers,
but I guess we'll find out
Oh my goodness, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the
Waycots Dept. Presented by The Ring Magazine and Boxing officially
just went to war. If you guys don't know, the
sport of boxing has entered a new era, and we
all should know by now. That means the introduction of
ZUFA Boxing and the potential of the sanctioning bodies, other promoters,
(00:23):
fighters moving left and right, and complete chaos throughout the sport.
We knew this was coming when Dana White got into boxing,
but we maybe didn't know what was going to be
this fast. Because as of about five minutes ago, as
right as I'm about to go over and watch the
Mario Barrios Ryan Garcia Wayns, the gauntlet was just dropped.
(00:44):
Connor Benn has signed to Zoofa Boxing. That's right, one
of Mattroom's key stable members you had at Matchroom, Anthony Joshua,
Katie Taylor and Connor Benn. That's been the stable for
Eddie Hearn to essentially boost Matchroom up through the next
generation and kind of carry that torch and now his
biggest cash cow outside of I would say Anthony Joshua
(01:06):
just jumped shit to not only a different promoter, but
a promoter he's been going back and forth with the
last couple of weeks Dana White, who's gone back and
forth with Eddie Hearn. You can see sides are being taken.
On this side you have Turkey Ala Ship, Dana White, Sella,
Nick Con Paramount plus maybe even Netflix. And on the
other side you have Eddie Hearn, the Zone, Anthony Joshua,
(01:29):
Katie Taylor, you know, Frank Warren, what's left of Golden Boy.
You're seeing a civil war. And just as a couple
of days ago, this is what Dana White was saying.
Is this beef between Dana and Eddie Hearn ZUFA Boxing
matchroom has started to get more and more intense. This
is what Dana had to say just a couple of
days ago. It was already gonna make a video about this,
(01:50):
but now the storyline gets even juice here. Let's take
a listen.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Then he pushed back, this is like beating up babies.
I feel like I came in and I'm beating up babies.
I expected more.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Do you see now Dana's smiling here, but do you
see him laughing? Do you see him joking about this?
Comment about beating up babies. He is absolutely going for
the neck of the sport of boxing right now. It
was a very quiet entry from ZUFA and so far
it hasn't been a lot of you know, big time plays. Yes,
the Canelo and Crawford was promoted by Dana White alongside
(02:24):
Turkey Ella Shake on Netflix. That was a big time entry.
But as far as ZUFA Boxing's concerned, they've been a
lot of shows in the UFCPI and not, you know,
not in front of a lot of people. You could
tell something was built. And seeing the ZUFAH shows, they
look a lot like the UFC. And we know that
the UFC took over the sport of MMA and did
it relatively easily through Yes, the finance of the Fertida Brothers,
(02:45):
but the vision of Dana White, Turkeylla Shak. Right, here's
same thing, the finance of Sela, the finance of Turkey
Ella Shake, vision of Dana White is starting to take
place here in ZUFA. Let's keep going.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I expected some pushback. I expected, I expect did some.
I don't know them gonna be more game this. They're
all way out of their league, like absolutely positively out
of their league.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I told you this was gonna happen. Go back and
find the video where Dana White and ZUFA officially announced
they were getting into boxing. I told you it was
going to change the sport. I told you they were
probably gonna take over the sport. Now that's not happening yet.
This today is a massive, massive, astonishing shocking. I never
would have thought type of acquisition for ZUOFA getting Connor Ben. Again,
(03:35):
we'll get to that in a second. But I told
you when Dana White started talking about getting into boxing,
he kept saying, this is a sport that it's killed itself.
This is a sport that has been mismanaged, misrun, and
because of it, it's going to make it that much
easier for us to come in and do what we'd like.
And again he was very coy about that early on,
but Turkey Ella Shak was turk Yllashak was saying stuff like, yeah,
we're gonna take this sport over. That seems to be
(03:58):
now Dana talking more brash, more in boldened to say
things like this like I expected more of a fun
These guys have no idea what's coming, and now we're
seeing it.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Eddie Hearn says, all, this guy's a visionary or you know,
you know, the guy's been in boxing forever. I look
at him like most politicians. You've done nothing in the
sport except stay in the lane and you know, play
by all the rules and you know, ride right along
with what's but you're you ended up becoming part of
the problem. Is what happened. And I don't want to
(04:30):
sit here and smash Eddie Hearn or anything else. But
Eddie Hearn works for his dad, you know what I mean.
He works for dad, and you know, I don't think
he's come in and ever had any type of vision
whereas we do. And we're gonna We're going to change
the entire sport.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Do you understand how personal Dana White just made this
entire thing. This is after their fourth zoofa show. He
is going directly at Eddie Hearn. This was a couple
of days ago where he said these guys don't have
and I disagree with him. I think Eddie earned has
a great vision for the sport, and I think what
he's doing with Matchroom, their new deal with his own
is a big deal. But Dana is operating on a
different wavelength. Clearly. And when he says that Eddie is
(05:11):
only in this sport because he works for his daddy,
that's not only a personal shot, but that's a declaration
of war to me. That says, listen, I'm now ready
to play at the highest level. I'm ready to play
the game. ZUFA doesn't have like a massive event just yet,
but they are essentially signaling that they are ready to
play with the big boys right out of the gate,
because he's going after Eddie Hearn, who is the biggest promoter.
(05:35):
I would say, by himself, solo dolo, maybe him and
Frank in boxing right or they were until Dana White
decided to get into the sport. And you hear that
the verbidge playing by the rules status quo, you became
part of the problem. They definitely had a plan, and
Dana started talking like this this week because he knew
he had something under the sleeve. I don't have any
sleeves on, but you get the point. And none of
(05:55):
us saw this coming.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I understand the people who are the status quo in
boxing don't like it, but it doesn't mean they can't
still do their thing. If your thing is as good
as you think it is, and you are as good
as you think you are, then do your thing. Good
luck to you. I'm gonna do my thing, and they're
gonna do theirs. Eddie Hern and his dad have a
lot of money. You know. It's not like they can't compete.
(06:18):
They can't compete because they don't know how to compete.
There's no vision there, you know. I don't know how
else to explain it other than that. And listen, I'm
sitting here my third fight in. I mean, either right
or I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Now again, We'll get back to the money talk in
a second, because the money talk is a big part
of this. Let's be honest. You guys know that that
my show is licensed by the Ring magazine, but we
all know that they have moneyed to spend. And when
we start talking about daddy's and who's in the business,
I don't know if Eddie and his dad can keep
up dollar for dollar. As a matter of fact, it's
(06:56):
not that I don't know. I know they can't. With
turkeyella shit and his investment is a in sella and
their investment is I know that's not true. They can't.
So when Dana's talking about competing, yeah, he is competing
with a loaded deck, right, he has a lot more
things to throw out there to get these massive signings.
And Connor Bin's the first massive name signing. But they
also have gio Opataiah, the best probably boxer on their roster,
(07:18):
not even probably the best boxer on their rosters, Giopataiah,
the best cruiser weight on the planet. So now you
have Opataiah and you have Connor Benn. But before we
get I know, I'm taking the long scenic rout here,
before we get to that, did Dana know then? This
was on February fifteenth, five days ago. Did he know
then that this was coming down the line? He was
sending a shot at Eddie knowing something that Eddie didn't,
because at the time it just seemed like trash talk.
(07:40):
At the time, it just seemed like a declaration we're
in this game you're gonna have to deal with. But
now it seems like premonition. Now it seems like foresight
and telling the future to Eddie, Like, buddy, not only
are we saying you don't know what you're doing, or
not only are we saying you're not equipped for this war,
but we're about to show you. I don't know if
Eddie knew this was coming either, because here is his
response to Day just a couple of days later.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Dana, Why yeah, my new mate, Josh Barry Hearn's son, we've.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Got him already.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
What did it take a month to allow him to
get well? That's I mean, that's a sick mind for one.
I don't know what the fuck he was talking about there.
That's quite quite disturbing. If I'm honest with you, it's
very strange. Because I've got to be honest with you.
I wouldn't say up my ass. But Dane has always
been so complimentary about us as a company and me
(08:29):
as a promoter. But to say that I don't have
any vision, it's really strike strange. I mean, right now,
when you talk about Zuffer's or wherever it's called, when
you talk about their vision, what's their vision?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
What game?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Max Kellerman to tay Her.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
We'll get into this second. But watching this now, after
learning that Connor Benn has just jumped ship from mattro
it's not a great look for Eddie. This At the
time when Eddie put this out, or when he did
this interview with with Arlie Parsons, it was a ten
a to Eddie, he clappen back at Dana. We didn't
know if Dana had any It seems like Eddie didn't
know that this was going on behind his bat And
(09:07):
that's what makes this even worse. It's like, damn, because
had nothing been different, had Connor still been with mattrim
all the things that he's saying here are good joust
back and forth, verbal, you know, shots across the back.
But now knowing the reality that Connor Benn was working
on a deal with Dana White this entire time, and
EDI's like, well, I don't have any vision, what are
you talking about? Kind of proves him not right, but
(09:28):
kind of shows that Dana was not playing above board.
He was playing dirty and he went behind your back
like a swing dancer.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Everyone that Callum Wolf, she's the next Roy Jones or
putting Charles Martin on a headline show on a Sunday
night in front of one hundred and twenty six people,
and you carry you in a ring that looks like
you just got it out of a local club show.
Who's the fucking vision?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Is that? Oh best?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
They'll oh no, no, it's about it's that fun look
at the vision. That's not vision.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
That's control it is, but it's both to me because
what you've seen over last couple of weeks, really really
over the last couple of months, is that this idea
that you know, fighters grow up wanting to fight for
the WBC, the WBC, the WBA, the WBO, the IBF.
It's bullshit. And I know that boxing historians are gonna
(10:14):
say that's shortsighted and that I didn't understand the history
of the sport to be saying that, But look at
what these sanctioning body heads are doing. They're begging for
money from fighters, even if they're not defending that belt.
They are begging for their percentage. This is the only
service they seem to provide. And then when you see
what those potential funds are used for. Hell, I'm at
the Bryan Garcia Mario Barrios fight. I've seen Ricio Suliman
(10:37):
hold up that stupid ass forty thousand dollars chain talking
about the winner gets this. Who gives a shit. We
don't care if you get them a nice chain, or
if you redo the belt for the fiftieth time, or
because there's four sanctioning bodies, they mean they have to
go win all four belts to be the real chance,
to be the undisputed chance. We have four champions walking
around calling themselves the world champions, and it dissuades the
common fan from watching and understanding who the real champ
(10:59):
is because, for the most part, up until recently Turke
Yella Shake getting into the sport, we haven't seen best
fight best. We haven't seen fighters take risks because they
don't have to. They can hold their belt, they can
fight their mandatory, they can drop their belt, go get
a different belt. Still be a world champ. Not fight
the toughest guy, not fight the number one, not fight
the undisputed. I'm not saying the Zuppa belt is going
to be the most world recognized belt anytime soon. But
(11:22):
what it will do is that he said there, it
will create control of the narrative. It'll create control of
the sport in terms of what a champion is, which
is the one singular best in the world. And the
sanctioning bodies have themselves to blame here, and I'm talking
about all four rating around like their belt's the best,
and this is why then if you don't fight for
(11:42):
their belt or you don't pay your sanctioning fee, they're
gonna pull your belt and onto the next and fighters
are starting to say, we don't care. Chakor doesn't care,
Terence Crawford doesn't care, Keshan Davis doesn't care. How many
more guys are gonna start to take that pattern because
the best in the world isn't determined by the color
of the belt, by who you beat. Are you the
baddest on the planet for your weight class? So Eddie's right.
(12:04):
It does create control and ZUPFA will operate not just
as a promotion but as a league I assume, which
is gonna be an interesting thing because how are they
going to do business with people outside of it. I
don't know any of these ins and outs yet. I
don't know. Is Jaiopataia gonna be, you know, the ZUFFA
champion and for go the rest of his belts?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I don't know, because the reality is when he says
we can't compete, they can't compete in this cutthroat world
of boxing because it's a horrible world, and they don't.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Want to compete. They want to create their own world.
But listen, I mean, yeah, that's true. They're creating their
own thing because boxing, to me, I agree with Dana
on this is broken. It's fundamentally broken. It's so scattered
and it's spread out so thin, through so many weight divisions,
through so many champions and so many belts, that it's
(12:48):
hard to get a casual audience to invest into the
sport when they don't know who the champion is, when
there's so many weight classes that there's tons of people
fighting that you have never heard of, champions you've never
heard of. You can't go into the UFC's rolodex and
find a champion you haven't heard of. If you're a
casual fan of MMA, you know the champion, you know
past champions, you know women's champion. And in boxing, yes
(13:10):
it's a bigger sport with more people taking part in
different areas, and yes that means more opportunities, which I'm
a fan of. But the point is there is a
fundamental problem. The system in boxing is broken. And while
Eddie is right that ZUFA is not gonna play the
same game that everybody else has been playing, and yes
that's gonna mean a whole separate Aliact revision, it's also
(13:31):
gonna mean they don't have to compete in your game.
But they are going to compete for your talent. They
have no talent. Whether you're ZUFA or Matchroom or anybody else,
your business is broken. Man.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
When you compare Mattrium shows to ZUFA shows, quite frankly,
ZUFA shows are absolute complete dogshita. They're gonna get better
and they're gonna sign some big fires.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
They just they've done three shows. That's yeah. That's the
tough part is like he's right, compared to Mattroom shows,
ZUFA hasn't done anything. He was absolutely right when he
said this. But they're only done three shows and.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
They're going to spunk some money. They're going to waste
some money. I've said it before. They're clever people, but
right now they're trying to manipulate fight fans and they
don't understand how intelligent fight fans are when it comes
to boxing.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
You can't create these cards.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
And tell everyone it's the best feed of best because
it's quite frankly not. And the reality is, yes, I
do work for my dad, but guess what dad. Dana
White has worked for his daddy for a long time.
The Fatisa Brothers, that's who he worked for. And right now,
Dana White's got a new daddy and his name is
Turkey out of Shak. Turkey out of Shake. He's Dana
(14:35):
White's puppy and he has got to do whatever he's
told because he works for TKO, which is owned by
Seller and soweda shake. So it took him a nanosecond
to get personal. But that's because right now he's right
at the bottom of the par in terms of quality
as a boxing from Earth Bad.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, he's right, but it may not be there for
a very long because he just took one of your
biggest talent. Again, this is this is Watching this in
retrospect for Eddie is a little bit damaging because Number one,
while yes, you can say Turkey alas Shake is the
only reason Dana White is in boxing, that's one hundred
percent clear, but Turkeylla Shake is also one of the
(15:17):
big benefactors of Eddie Hearn right, not just and Barry Hearn,
not just on the boxing side, but on the dart side,
on the snooker side, Turkey Alla Shak has funded a
lot of Eddie Hearn's business as well. So I don't
know who's daddy is who, Like Turkey Ala Shake is
funding both sides of this this is like some crazy
political wartime like CIA move from Turkey to fund both
(15:40):
sides of the war and have them go at it.
But I think if I had to say which side
of this Turkeyla Shake is on, He's on the side
of ZUFA boxing Dana White. And that's I think that's
where his primary investment is because I think SELA does
own sixty percent of ZUFA. So anyway, that was the response,
and at the time it was a good response from
Eddie Hearn, right sticking it on Dana saying, hey, you know,
(16:00):
you're nobody in this game yet. And that was true
up until twenty minutes ago. Because look at this, and
I'm telling you guys, no one predicted this. No one
had any idea that Connor Benn was jumping ship from
Eddie Hearn And here he is shaking hands with Dana White.
I think this is at the UFCPI I think this
is in Vegas and there he is, man, the new
(16:23):
signee of ZUFA Boxing. Unbelievable. This was Eddie's dude, man,
you I don't even have words for this. When Connor
Benn came into boxing and he started getting promoted by
Eddie hearn Eddie had his back through everything. I'm talking
the drug tests, the failures, the freaking time off when
(16:48):
he was at his lowest. He was with him, He
stuck with him, he had his back. And again I'm
not saying this is just business. At the end of
the day, I'm not saying Connor is wrong for leaving.
Won't see how much notice Eddie had of Connor Lee.
That'll be a huge, huge thing. Like if Connor just
straight up didn't say a word and this is how
Eddie found out, that's a problem. But it's just business
(17:08):
and I'm just saying it's it's shocking to see Connor
not only sign with ZUFA, but Zuofa is a American
boxing promotion. Not to say they only signed Americans because
they signed Jio Pataiah now Connor Benn. But usually you
would think, with the fan base he already has in
the UK that that would be where he'd make his
his stable, right Matchroom being a UK juggernaut right now
(17:30):
because boxer's fucked off, they're gone. If Queensberry there makes sense,
but then it's Mattroom or vice versa. But he decided
to go with ZUFA, and I have to think that
the money was just too good to pass up. The
opportunities were just too good to pass up. And speaking
of the opportunities, that's where a bit of a question
mark comes into play, because what does this mean? All
(17:50):
Connor Ben had said over the last few months is
that he wants a shot at the world title, he
wants a shot at becoming great. He wants to shot
at Ryan Garcia, he wants it's a shot at Shakur Stevenson,
he wants a shot at Devin Haney. Are we about
to see some of these guys signing with ZUFA or
is ZUFA gonna work with some of these other promoters?
I don't know. I don't know where that whole intersection
(18:12):
crosses over, but it starts to give some pretty interesting
hints of information to be like, well, what are we
gonna see? Are there more signings to come? Because this
is massive? Okay, so now we hear from Chris Mannix,
this is very interesting. Connor Ben's deal with ZUPA Boxing
is a one fight, eight figure deal. Okay, this puts
some interesting spin on what we're reading now. So Connor
(18:34):
Benn is only signing a one fight deal with ZUFA.
It's life changing money and he only is under contract
for one fight, so that that does change a little
bit of the discussion as far as what potentially is
gonna go on here because how much is Connor going
to really stay with ZUFA. Here's him taking a picture
with Keith Connelly as manager. There he is Nick con
(18:54):
the man behind the scenes that gets this shit done,
along with Dana White obviously, but this is big dude.
Connor been messaged Eddie Hearn after the split. After a
decade in the matter room, Ben thanks Eddie Hearn and
the team for guiding him through the pro turning him
pro to headlining stadium show standing shoulder to shouldered into
tough times as well as the highs. He says Zuper
presented an opportunity he simply couldn't refuse and opes Eddie
(19:16):
can still be a part of his team as the
partnership evolves. I want the legacy fights, the biggest nights,
the biggest stages. I fear no man at any weight.
I'm in my prime. I fear no man at any weight.
That's the thing. I'm trying to figure out. Who's it
gonna be. It's gonna go up, It's gonna go down
the Callum Walsh fight. There's no way they would try
to push Connor into a Callum Walsh fight for eight figures, right,
(19:37):
this comes out of nowhere. But Connor has been calling
for the Chakor fight, and we know Shakor is with
Jay Prince as a manager. I'm not sure who he's
promoted by right now, if he even has one, So
maybe that could be something where they work out something
with Shakor. He hasn't been a fan of the belts.
I don't know though, again how that would go. Or
Ryan Garcia this whole week has been talking about really
not this week, but build up, how he only has
(19:58):
a couple of fights left or this may be his
last fight with Golden Boy. Oscar has said differently, but
this came out of nowhere. Could Dana be talking to
Ryan Garcia while he's in Vegas by the way, about
potentially the idea to jump over to ZUFA and have
a super fight if he is able to get the
belt with Connor. Ben not again that he would bring
the WBC belt over, but he would be an established
(20:18):
world champion drop the WBC belt, fight for the ZUFA belt.
The possibilities are endless. This is breaking news. I had
to get it to you guys. Let me know what
you think in the meantime, because this is this is massive.
The one fight deal is very interesting. Connor could come
over and then go back to Eddie right after and
it just be peaches, but very very interesting.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Yes, people say, just finished training again, hoggrafter at the
UFC facility?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
What facility? More importantly, I'm excited about his future. Let's
go interesting, man. Like I said, the gauntlet has been
thrown down, the battle lines have been drawn. Boxing is
in an all out war, and ZUFA takes the first
shot across the bout A signed Connor Benn. It's a
one fight, eight figure deal. Who's he fight? Who else
(21:04):
is coming down the line? Look at all of your
favorite fighters right now, who aren't necessarily talking about their
deals with their promoters, or they are talking about the
deals but talking about how they're about to be done
with them. No one is off the board, it seems
like so I don't know who they could be fighting
with Connor Benn, But I'm talking about all weight divisions.
It's all open season and we're about to get a
(21:25):
war of a lifetime. What happens next, We have those answers,
but I guess we'll find out
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