Saturday’s Zuffa Boxing 11 press conference in London was supposed to be about the card that had just ended. It quickly became something else.
Reporter after reporter pushed Dana White on the 11 December heavyweight fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, which has been publicly wobbling for weeks. White, the UFC president who is now running the Zuffa Boxing operation, got increasingly agitated as the questions kept coming.
“I’m involved in the f—ing fight,” White told the room, adding that he had already “answered this question 257,000 times.”
“Welcome to boxing”
The flashpoint came when Jack Figg of The Sun asked whether White would consider stepping aside if his involvement was the thing threatening the bout. White accused him of asking “leading questions” and mocked his boxing knowledge on the spot, according to a detailed rundown of the exchange.
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“I know what you’re doing. You’re asking leading questions.”
“Oh really, did you just get here? Welcome to boxing. What did you just f—ing walk in from across the street with your cellphone and you don’t know anything about the sport or what’s going on?”
White then turned his fire on Eddie Hearn, the Matchroom promoter who works with Joshua.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever known anybody who’s more full of f—ing s—t than Eddie Hearn.”
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Figg turns his fire on the UFC press pack
A day later, Figg went into print with his own account, turning the story into a wider critique of how combat sports is covered.
“He seems to get off the hook all too easily in his UFC bubble, where media seem too fearful of losing access to ever dare stand up to the 57-year-old pal of Donald Trump.”
His point, spelled out around that line, was that the mainly friendly UFC press-conference culture has not prepared White for a boxing press pack that is used to pressing promoters on contracts, purses and clauses.
Boxing writers refuse to be intimidated
The London incident has become a talking point across the boxing beat, and several outlets have framed it as boxing writers refusing to be intimidated by White’s tone. The pattern under discussion is the same one Figg raised: UFC reporters, whose access depends on staying in White’s good graces, rarely press him this way in public.
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The Fury vs Joshua fight is still officially scheduled for 11 December, but White himself said on Saturday night that he does not know whether the bout will happen and that clarity would come in “three to four days.”
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