Dana White issues immediate response to Eddie Hearn's boxing challenge

Dana White has told Eddie Hearn to bring it on after the boxing promoter laid down a challenge.

UFC CEO White is making his debut as a boxing promoter this weekend as he stages Canelo Alvarez's showdown with Terence Crawford in Las Vegas. He intends to make a hard launch next year in what he claims will be an attempt to 'fix' the sport by effectively becoming it's CEO in the same way he has at UFC.

But Hearn, one of the world's leading promoters through his Matchroom company, is more than ready to take on the American. “Listen, what I will tell you is you’re not going to see me slagging off Dana White, not because I don’t want to upset him, because I respect him and I have a good relationship with him,"

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“The one thing that I would really like at this point in my career is to go head-to-head with him and to take him on. I want to compete against Dana White. I want to prove that I’m much better than him as a boxing promoter. So, I’m excited for him to come into the space. That doesn’t mean we’re going to fall out, by the way.

“Competition’s fantastic, but you’re not going to come into boxing and steamroll the game. It’s not going to happen. But we can get on, we can work together, but ultimately, it depends how they’re going to manoeuvre.

“Everybody is a competitor to us in the sport, but a lot of those competitors are friends and a lot of those competitors we work with for the benefit of our business, our fighters and the sport and that hopefully will be the same with Dana, but let’s see how it plays out."

White later responded to the challenge when he appeared on the Jim ROme show. “My guy, Eddie Hearn, whom I love and I respect him and I saw him today,” White. "He’s out there talking smack, he’s like, Dana is wrong, he can’t do this... I love this stuff. I look forward to it, too, Eddie. I can’t wait."