Ariel Helwani asks Dana White over Fury vs Joshua: 'Do you have that big of an ego?'
Helwani said White has no connection to Fury or Joshua and could walk away, and praised The Sun's Jack Figg for standing up to him at Saturday's press conference.
Ariel Helwani has questioned why Dana White is fighting so hard for a role in Tyson Fury against Anthony Joshua, and said White shares the blame because he could easily back out.
"Dana White doesn't need this. Dana White is a multi, multi, multi-millionaire, even perhaps a billionaire at this point," Helwani said on The Ariel Helwani Show on Monday. "Dana White has no connection to AJ or Fury. What does he need this glory for?"
He turned the situation around. If Conor McGregor had a deal with Eddie Hearn and Hearn tried to "wedge himself in there and take the glory" at McGregor's fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, White "would say, you motherf*cker have nothing to do with this. Get your f*cking ass out of here. He would do the exact same thing that Eddie's trying to do."
"Do you have that big of an ego?" Helwani asked. "For some reason, he can't lose. He can't take the L on this one... when he tries to say that there's only one guy trying to f*ck this up, don't be mistaken. There's another guy as well because he could easily back out."
Helwani also singled out The Sun's Jack Figg, who pressed White at the Zuffa Boxing 11 press conference in London on Saturday. "Jack Figg has his moment with Dana White, where Dana tries to intimidate and bully him and deflect and distract... It was tremendous to watch," Helwani said, calling Figg a former amateur boxer and a "highly respected guy". Of White that night, Helwani said: "He lost control... He was dying inside." White at the Zuffa Boxing 11 press conference.
Helwani also praised the UK boxing media as a whole: Helwani on the UK press. Every turn in the row is in our Dana White and Eddie Hearn timeline.
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About this report
Reported by the Combat Sports UK desk. Times are UK and Irish time, and we update the report when the facts change. How we work.