Eddie Hearn has moved off his earlier position on Dana White’s involvement in Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua, according to Sherdog, which reported Monday night that the Matchroom promoter has changed his tune on the UFC boss’s role in the heavyweight fight. Sherdog framed it on X as a new turn in the ongoing dispute between the two men. Boxing News, meanwhile, reported that Hearn has called White out for a public debate over Fury vs. Joshua.
That’s about as far as the reporting goes for now. The published coverage doesn’t lay out what Hearn said word for word, what exactly his old stance was, or whether White has responded. So the shape of the argument is clear (two promoters, one fight, a public challenge) while the substance is still waiting to be printed.
The fight they’re fighting over
Fury vs. Joshua is set for Dec. 11 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, and the card around it is filling in. Boxing Kingdom reported on Nov. 2 that a deal is done for Deontay Wilder to face Jai Opetaia on the undercard, as Bloody Elbow relayed. Opetaia holds the Ring Magazine, WBA Regular and Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight titles and is expected to come up from 200 pounds to meet Wilder at heavyweight. He hasn’t fought at heavyweight since 2017.
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Wilder, 41, is coming off a split-decision win over Derek Chisora in a Misfits Boxing main event earlier this year, a performance that had plenty of fans telling him to retire. His history with Fury needs no introduction: three fights, two wins for Fury and a draw. Putting the Bronze Bomber on the undercard of a Fury fight in Wales is a nice bit of casting, whatever you think of his chances against a technician like Opetaia.
Joshua’s most recent outing was the one that ended a streak for somebody else. He knocked out Jake Paul in Miami in December 2025, breaking Paul’s jaw badly enough that it took two surgeries to repair. It was the first knockout loss of Paul’s pro career, and it snapped a six-fight run that included Mike Tyson, Mike Perry and Nate Diaz. Paul (12-2) returns Dec. 24 in Dubai against former GLORY champion Cédric Doumbé, and Doumbé has already promised in a release to finish the job Joshua started.
Quick take
A promoter challenging another promoter to a public debate, five weeks out from the biggest British heavyweight fight in years, is promotion wearing a debate’s clothes. That’s fine. Hearn has always been at his best with a microphone and a grievance, and anything that keeps Fury vs. Joshua in the conversation sells tickets in Cardiff. What I’d like before anyone declares a winner is the actual text of what Hearn changed his mind about, because right now the dispute is mostly headlines about headlines. White has spent his career deciding which fights are worth his voice. If he takes this one, it’ll be because the attention helps him too. If he ignores it, Hearn still got his week of coverage, and Wilder and Opetaia still have a Dec. 11 date in Wales.
