Dana White Says He’s Promoting Fury vs. Joshua, Eddie Hearn Says He’s “Out of the Picture”
By Real Combat Media Boxing Editorial Staff
Cardiff, Wales, (September 24th, 2026)–Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua finally have a date and a venue: December 11, Principality Stadium, live on Netflix. What they don’t have, at least according to two of the biggest names in boxing, is an agreed answer to a much simpler question: who’s actually promoting it. Netflix’s official press release credits Turki Alalshikh’s The Ring and UFC/Zuffa Boxing chief Dana White as co-promoters. Anthony Joshua’s own promoter, Eddie Hearn, says that’s flatly untrue, and he’s not being quiet about it.
The Netflix Announcement
Thursday’s release confirmed the long-rumored fight for December 11 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, streaming globally to Netflix’s 325 million-plus members at no extra cost. The release stated that Alalshikh’s The Ring organization and White “will collaborate to promote this historic showdown,” and carried a quote from White himself. Notably absent from the credited promoters were Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, which represents Joshua, and Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions, which represents Fury, despite both men actually holding the promotional contracts for their respective fighters.
Eddie Hearn’s Response
Hearn didn’t wait long to react. In an interview with iFL TV recorded the day after the announcement, he dismissed White’s inclusion outright. “The [expletive] involved in this fight, we’ll come onto the fact that even Netflix put out a press release saying the fight will be in conjunction with Dana White,” Hearn said. “There’s loads of battles to come on that, because that ain’t happening either. Dana White cannot be involved with this fight promotionally. Netflix clearly didn’t get the memo. You see, no one talks to each other. I speak to Sela and Turki: no, Dana White is not involved in the fight, you’ve got a contract that says that, he won’t be at the presser. And then Netflix say, oh yes, the fight is in conjunction with Dana White.” Hearn’s position is that Joshua’s promotional contract, and a corresponding agreement on Fury’s side, specifically bars White, Zuffa Boxing, TKO, and affiliated companies from any promotional role in the fight, a position Frank Warren has separately backed. Hearn didn’t stop at the legal argument, either, taking a personal shot at White over the wording of the release: “You really got them to include your name in the press release? You silly, soppy tit. It’s so petty. You’ve lost, mate. You’ve lost.”
Dana White’s Position
White hasn’t backed off his stance either. Weeks earlier, asked directly by iFL TV who is promoting the fight, he answered simply, “It’ll be me.” At another point during the drawn-out negotiations, with talks over the fight’s venue at risk of collapsing entirely, White made clear he saw the delays as absurd given how much the fight means to the sport: “We’re literally right there. It gets to the point where it’s silly now. Let’s fight, right?” He’s also taken his own shots at Hearn throughout the process, at one point saying he’d “never seen somebody do more damage to a fight.” As of publication, White has not issued a direct on-camera response to Hearn’s latest comments, though given the pace of this feud, that’s unlikely to last long.
The History Behind the Fight
This fight has been talked about for the better part of a decade and in serious negotiations for close to a year, and the promoter dispute is really the second major fight inside the fight. The first was over where it would happen at all. Netflix and White pushed for a U.S. venue, reportedly Madison Square Garden, to maximize the American audience for boxing’s biggest domestic-market event in years. Hearn and Joshua held firm that their original signed contract required the fight to take place in the United Kingdom, and refused to sign off on relocating it without a renegotiated deal. That standoff dragged on for weeks, with White publicly warning that continued delays could sink the fight altogether. It ultimately broke in the UK’s favor: organizers agreed to stage the event in Cardiff, with Joshua taking a pay cut relative to what a U.S. date would likely have paid, avoiding the heavier U.S. tax burden on fighter purses in the process. Turki Alalshikh confirmed the venue directly, saying, “Fury vs. Joshua will be coming to the UK, as I promised British boxing fans. The time for talking is over.” Hearn has framed the venue win as proof his contract holds up, which is exactly why he’s now treating the promoter question the same way. Tyson Fury, for his part, has taken a notably different tone than his own promoter, publicly welcoming White’s involvement even as Warren disputes it.
Where This Leaves Things
The fight itself isn’t in doubt. December 11 in Cardiff is confirmed, and Joshua responded to the news with a cryptic social media post without directly naming Fury. What remains genuinely unresolved is who gets called the promoter of record, and it’s not a symbolic argument. Promotional credit affects everything from press conference seating to how revenue and control get divided. Hearn says the contracts are unambiguous and White has no role. White has said, just as plainly, that he does. Neither side has produced the actual contract language publicly, and RCM will update this story as more becomes available from either camp.
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Eddie Hearn Reacts to Fury vs. Joshua Announcement, Rips Into Dana White
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