Two of boxing’s loudest promoters spent Thursday night writing the obituary for Dana White’s boxing company, and the company hasn’t even had its second birthday.
Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn went the furthest. “They might be finished already,” Hearn said, according to Bad Left Hook, which framed his comments as a claim that Zuffa Boxing is collapsing. That’s Hearn’s read. Zuffa hasn’t confirmed any collapse, and the claim comes from a direct business rival, so treat it as an opinion rather than an established fact.
Bob Arum got there a few hours earlier. “The Saudis are clearly pulling back,” he said, per Yahoo Sports. Arum also told MiddleEasy he was putting Zuffa through what amounts to a financial viability test. He looked at how much the promotion has been spending and at the departure of Shakur Stevenson, while admitting he doesn’t know the terms of the private deals behind the operation or where future money will come from. That admission matters. Arum is reading the tea leaves from outside the room, and he said so himself.
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Why the old guys are circling
White co-founded Zuffa Boxing in 2025 and serves as its promoter, which puts him in direct competition with Hearn and Arum for fighters, dates and broadcast money. He already runs the UFC as CEO of a company that the Fertittas bought for $2 million in 2001 and sold for $4 billion in 2016. He also runs Power Slap. Forbes put his net worth at over $600 million last year. So nobody should be shocked that the boxing establishment has been waiting for the first sign of a wobble.
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The Saudi piece is the part I’d watch. If the funding really is softening, a promotion built on big spending has two choices: cut the checks or find a new backer. Losing a name like Stevenson suggests at least one of those conversations has already gotten uncomfortable. If the money holds, Hearn and Arum are just doing what promoters do, which is talking down the competition for free.
I’ve lost money betting against Dana White before, and I’ve lost money trusting a promoter’s read on a rival’s books. White, for his part, spent Thursday on the UFC 333 press conference dais, where Alexander Volkov asked him how to get a title shot and got sent to Sean and Mick. Nobody asked him about boxing.
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