Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith has taken aim at Dana White, calling the UFC CEO a “shit promoter” while talking about White’s attempts to break into boxing, FightBook MMA reported Thursday. In the same conversation, Smith looked back at one of the stranger episodes in the long saga of Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua. He said negotiations for the heavyweight fight once took place in a karaoke bar.
The initial report didn’t lay out the finer points of that night, such as who was in the room, when it happened or whether anyone actually grabbed a microphone. What’s clear is the timing. Smith is swinging at White just as the fight that dodged everyone for years has finally landed somewhere real.
Fury vs. Joshua is set for Dec. 11 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, streaming live on Netflix under the Ring Magazine banner. Turki Alalshikh announced on X that tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 9, at 12pm UK time (8am ET).
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The White angle didn’t come out of nowhere. Earlier this week, Ariel Helwani posted comments from Eddie Hearn, who claimed TKO offered Joshua somewhere around $10 million to let it promote the fight. Hearn’s read was that the UFC’s parent company wanted credit for a fight it didn’t build. “They need to be there front and center of AJ-Fury in a fight they have nothing to do with and say, ‘Look, told you, Zuffa Boxing, we are the guys. Look, biggest fight in the world,’” Hearn said. According to Hearn, the offer also involved holding the fight in America and having Joshua appear at WWE events. He said the pitch arrived as “a very clear written proposal” from someone who “came round the back” and approached a member of Joshua’s team.
MMA Fighting separately reported that Hearn said he doesn’t care if TKO ends up producing Fury vs. Joshua, and that he called Zuffa Boxing’s start “abysmal.” White has also had his hands full with Oscar De La Hoya, who said he skipped Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn because he believed he was going to be set up. White denied that and said Vince McMahon once did something like that to him.
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Joshua, for his part, seems to be paying attention to the work and not the noise. Gaston Reyno shared footage on X of Panamanian great Manos de Piedra Durán teaching him body shots, which is about as good a tutor as a heavyweight can find eight weeks out from a stadium fight.
My take is that Smith’s insult is the least interesting thing he said. Promoters have been calling each other names since the first poster was printed. The karaoke detail is better, because it fits a fight that stalled for years in rooms where nobody was taking it seriously. Now there’s a date, a stadium and a ticket window opening Friday morning, and if Hearn’s account of that $10 million offer is accurate, TKO was trying to buy its way into the one room that finally got it done.
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