Speaker 1: Now we get to a juicy part of the news,
and that is the news that came out what on Friday, yep,
that Connor Benn has decided to ink with ZUFA Boxing. Hmm.
Very interesting on several fronts. And I've been reading your substack.
I've been reading a lot of the reporting, been listing
to Connor Binn's comments in statements that he's made. I
don't know if he did an on an on camera
interview or an audio interview. Eddie Hearn has obviously been
out there. I did not hear what he said on
the dizone broadcast, but I've read his comments and using
the word betrayal as he's left Matchroom Boxing. All right,
get to the particulars and then I'm on the launching
pad about Zoufa Boxing and Dana White and all the
hypocrisy every which direction. So go ahead first with the
pertinent stuff.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, well, Connor. First things first, Connor Ben fought
the rematch and won against Chris hu Bank Junior in
their second fight, and and he was out of contract
with Matchrom. So it's no different than if you are
a pitcher or a base you know, a hitter. At
the end of the baseball season. Your contract's up, you
go into the free agent market. Same when but when
the basketball free agency uh portion of the of the
year opens, or or anybody NFL, anybody in boxing, their
contract is up. You know your you have the right
to go and explore where you want to. You know, uh,
do your events, do your do your career. Now that
that was the case, so it came as a surprise
because he's been so tied to match Room and to Eddie.
Now there's a couple of things here. One, he took
the deal with with with ZUFA. My reporting is that
it's a one fight deal with no options and no
strings attached. One fight will take place in the United
Kingdom before the end of May. Basically, you know, bring
an opponent, you know, somebody reputable, but they're not like
forcing you know, a top guy on him or anything
like that. And uh, it's fifteen million dollars, which is
life altering money if you're if you're Tyson Fury or
your Anthony Joshua or your Canelo Alvarez or something like that.
A fifteen million dollar pay day, I mean, it's a
lot of money, sure, but it's not.
Speaker 1: Any Alexander Us, Terrence Clawford.
Speaker 2: That, Yeah, these guys have made one hundred plus million dollars.
Connor Ben Is in his two fights with you Bank,
I think made a total of about twenty million, and
the rest of his career he's made, you know, maybe
a couple million if you want so. Fifteen million in
one fight where you're not even being required to fight,
you know, a super top level opponent. That's life altering money.
So I have no problem with the guy if you're
if you're unencumbered contractually to the signing with only making
you the biggest offer. Now here's where the things can
be a little bit or I get where Eddie's coming from.
To some degree, Eddie's crying disloyalty and he was shocked
by this, and he made a mistake by not having
him under contract, et cetera. And by the way, the
engineer of this is obviously you know Dana and Nick Kahn,
Keith Connelly. He was the manager for Connor Ben.
Speaker 1: And Turkey Alisk, the Len guy.
Speaker 2: Of course, that's where the money's coming from for sure,
because he supports the ZUFA business as well as his
own ring magazine, and you know, the access to the
Rea season money. Could the ben camp have handled it
a little better? Yes, I believe that Mattrim had the
right to match an offer. I guess they didn't match
the offer, and Eddie was I guess disappointed or sad
in or upset or ticked off, forever you want to
describe it. It's one thing if you leave. It's another
thing if you leave and you don't even have the
courtesy to make the phone call and say, listen, Eddie,
I just got this unbelievable offer. And I love you
and I appreciate everything you have done for me and
my family over the last ten years, standing beside my yep,
beside me and my family through all of my problems,
through my drug testing nightmare where everybody ridiculed me, and
you for standing by me, and you really went to
the mat for me, you know.
Speaker 1: The British media, the British media has reported this. He
allegedly fronted Connor bean advanced him some money while he
was suspended.
Speaker 2: That's what he didn't have to do, correct, So when
Connor was broke basically that's right.
Speaker 1: Well, the suspension was going on.
Speaker 2: And such legal bills related to the case, so it's
no problem if you are a free agent to go
about your business and go elsewhere. But I mean, I
can speak for myself. I know that it is. If
I was in that position, the way that I would
have done it is I would have called or even
that face to face and explained to them this amazing
opportunity and said, listen, I appreciate it. But and you know,
if the person's really your friend and you can really
go out there and make a way way more money
and that person can't give you the same offer, what
do you do? You slap my ney and say, listen, man,
it's one fight. I wish you nothing but the best,
and when you're done, come back and let's talk.
Speaker 1: But it's it's boxing, and there's underhanded things that have
gone on forever with.
Speaker 2: But the crocodiles, though, are a little bit much better well.
Speaker 1: Of course, of course, because he got one put over
on him. And all right, so let's go through the
full chronology of what happened late last week because I
only became aware of this like Thursday Friday. So Dana
White a week ago tonight after the ZUFA Boxing third
car the FAA jogbamb main event that he won, and
now this all lines up. He starts, after talking about
the fights going down the road, about all of these guys,
all of these promoters are such babies. I'm beating up
on babies. I'm paraphrasing, but he did use the word babies.
Speaker 2: He said, I'm beating up babies.
Speaker 1: And then he and then he says about Eddie Hearn
that he's been working for dads, spending dad's money.
Speaker 2: What.
Speaker 1: Well, now it lines up that they knew they were
talking to and doing a deal. Obviously they didn't maybe
have it last Sunday night, but they were on the
verge of doing this too. So the needing there was
almost like a foreshadowing of what was gonna come later
in the week. And I think that's irked Eddie Hearn
even more that the insults led to this fighter coming in.
But here I come, Raphael with this. You can't have
all sides of the argument. You can't sit and say
we're gonna revolutionize the sport. We're gonna have our own league,
We're gonna have fighters that only fight for us. We're
gonna have this and that and our own titles and
our own rankings, and we're gonna call all the organizations
evil and wrong, and we're gonna do our own thing.
And then out of the other side of your mouth,
as soon as it's in your financial interest and as
soon as Turkey Alishik wants to do it, you do
a one off deal with a fighter who's making ridiculous
money compared to what everybody else is making. This whole
thing is hypocrisy. Let me tell you what's going on.
What's going on is they are a promotional outlet now
not unlike all the other promotional outlets, and when it
makes sense for them to do a one off deal,
they'll pay that fighter of ten million, twenty million whatever.
With your reporting, you'll tell us what they're making all
this stuff about we're gonna stamp out the other boxing
promotions and the organizations and we're gonna we're gonna revolutionize boxing.
I don't need the end of the year. You have
the answer right now. They are just like all the
other promoters. When it's in their interest to do a deal,
they're gonna do a deal just like this for one
fight with no other further off.
Speaker 2: But I mean, why would anybody expect anything otherwise?
Speaker 1: So yeah, because what they have said since this got
formed is we're not dealing with these other people. We're
gonna revolution.
Speaker 2: Say they're not dealing with the with the.
Speaker 1: Organizations, and we're gonna revolutionize it. Do our own thing,
our own rankings, our own belts.
Speaker 2: They but I'm not sure how that's any different.
Speaker 1: So okay, what this What this demonstrates. What this demonstrates
is they are no different than top rank boxing. They're
no different than Golden Boy.
Speaker 2: They're no different than the reason why they're different is
because they have actually gotten the United States Congress to
approve or get on this, and that's not changing the legislation,
but that's it will make what they do a lot easier.
But that's on their.
Speaker 1: Different argument about whether that should be allowed to go
on or not.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying about.
Speaker 1: Business from a business standpoint.
Speaker 2: That's good for their business. They are.
Speaker 1: Right, But this is a boxing promotion that's just going
to do whatever's in their interest and it doesn't have
anything to do with a zoofa boxing league.
Speaker 2: What what what boxing owner doesn't do what's in their interest.
Speaker 1: But that's what I'm saying to you, So stop talking
to me about.
Speaker 2: How they never said in their interest though.
Speaker 1: But I heard the word we're going to revolutionize this,
We're going to change it, We're gonna bring it under
all of it. They are the same, TJ are the same.
Speaker 2: I've covered boxing for a long time. I've seen and
in the immortal words. And I'm not saying that Zoofa
is going to be one of these people, because I
actually think they're going to be able to be around
a long time because of the combination of their platform,
their financing, and the intelligent people that run it. But
there's plenty of promoters that have come in talk in
the same way that Zufa had done and throw a
lot of money around and been gone. In Lickety's stay tuned,
they're gonna be.
Speaker 1: I have no idea. I have no idea if they're
gonna be around. What I do know is Turkey al
Chic has the money. The Saudi PI.
Speaker 2: Don't forget they're getting like one hundred million.
Speaker 1: They are, but they they will burn through that money
doing deals like this in a hurry on their own
without Turkey Alosk.
Speaker 2: But I guarantee you, okay, I can guarantee you that
it is crazy to pay a Connor Ben fifteen million
for a regular fighting. I know, I don't know what
the reason is, but I know there is a reason
because I know the people that run ZUFA and they're
smart business people. Okay, well, can anybody will underestimate Nick Kahn?
Speaker 1: I'm not. All I'm saying to you is enough with
the whole we're gonna revolutionize it.
Speaker 2: We're gonna fight enough of that.
Speaker 1: The second thing is, and this is the incestual part
of all of this, Turkey alask has what he's doing
with Rion Season, the Saudi Entertainment Authority and putting these
fight cards on like what just happened in Las Vegas
and what happened with the other ring fight card late
in the year last year, and he's and that's correct
right in a way. So now now you're in the nebulous,
confusing thing that this is him making deals under the
ZUFA umbrella too, and it's all the same thing he's behind.
Speaker 2: By the way, it's a way around this for them,
so they can at least keep to their word in
quotes of not dealing with the organizations, but they will
if they sign an opataia like they're gonna do, which.
Speaker 1: I did, which by the way, helped me while I'm here,
because you just jogged me. You do the best at
anybody at finding this out. Is Opataia on a multi
fight deal or is this fight March the eighth of
one off?
Speaker 2: He's not a multi fight deal. Okay, very good, But
here's the here's the point that I'm gonna make though.
If Turkey al Chik his his side, they're the ones
funding ZUFA Boxing. Besides you know the one hundred mili
that they get from Paramount. He also, of course is
involved with everything related to their ring and Rian Season events.
So the way that you can be ZUFA Boxing, stick
to what you said you're gonn to do with your
so called league, is have the ability to have outs.
And I don't think there's a I think this is
a good thing. Actually, if you sign a Jaio Pataya,
he's not going to only be within the confines of ZUFA.
He'll be able to go and fight on a ring card.
He'll be able to go fight on a REA season right,
which means they can make deals because Zufa I mean
not sorry read Season and Ring magazine. The one good
thing about Turkey is he'll work with all the promoters Okay,
the card, hold on.
Speaker 1: I got you. He's been he's been dealing with Bevil,
he's been dealing with U Sick, he's been with Tyson Fury,
with all of it. But here we come back to
the main point, which is they are the same. And
the reason why UFC has succeeded to the point that
they have succeeded is that all of the money funnels
into one organization. The fighters are essentially salarycapped making X
and we've seen fighter after fighters screaming about fighter pay
out of UFC. There's been lawsuits involved in a couple
of them are still ongoing.
Speaker 2: They also have a big againsts.
Speaker 1: This is the reason why right Connor McGregor fought that
fight with Floyd Mayweather, because he made as much money,
if not more, in the one night with Mayweather than
he made the entire time he's been in UFC.
Speaker 2: Much more.
Speaker 1: This is this is the reason why the UH the
fighters should be skeptical about the model that was previously
used because it's gonna cap their money. And I'm just
I'm gonna sit back and watch all of this. But
we're we're already here.
Speaker 2: And you're not tapping Connor Ben's money.
Speaker 1: It's not capping and so then and so then what
happens is once the word gets out on how much
you're paying these guys, you're gonna have a harder time
with the salary cap and some of the.
Speaker 2: Other years because a guy like an Obataya that's a
major league world champion, or a guy like a Connor
Ben who doesn't have a lot of accomplishment, but as
a superstar, whether you like it or not, they're gonna
be getting more money. They deserve more money than a
guidance they can get right, but.
Speaker 1: They can get more money from Turkey Alas Sheik without
being in zooper boxing. They can just do their one offs,
do their fight deal. So let's just watch all of
this on full. I'm just sitting back laughing at the hypocrisy.
Speaker 2: I'm enjoying it. I don't. I don't care for the
for the constant back and forth between hearing Matt you know,
Eddie and Oscar de la Joya and Dana ripping each other,
that's tiresome. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: To me, it's boring. But what I do find interesting
is the arms race, if you will, in the end,
it's going to probably end up being good for the
fighters because of course multiple there's competition.
Speaker 1: The last three years on the highest end has been
phenomenal with Turkey Ala Chic And again we should illuminate
this for the audience because I have understanding outside of boxing,
like you look at the Live Golf League sure where
they have lost hundreds of millions of dollars signing all
of those prominent golfers with a business plan that is
not obligated to make any money, they can just lose
hundreds of millions of dollars. They tried a They still
have a Saudi soccer league and they signed Cristiano Ronaldo
to that soccer league to a one hundred million dollar
deal at the end of his career to place two
soccer seasons Rayfael fifty million a year. That league doesn't
make anything, they're just losing money.
Speaker 2: But when they spend that kind of money, it's like
if you and I went and spent like, you know,
we had like a ten dollars breakfast.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's not a ten dollar breakfast. But still
it's ridiculous money for the fighters, and that's good. The
free market is good. This is the reason why constricting
the fighters under an umbrella and saying, where you're a promoter,
where you're a manager, you'll make what we say that
you're making, and that's it, and we have long term
deals with you that you have to sign or else.
Speaker 2: I think what everybody, I think what already has to
do when they look at the ZUFA situation is you
just have to understand that there's one sort of boxer.
You know, young guys still trying to make their way,
or even older veterans that are maybe on the way out.
You know, you can talk about some of the prospect
types that they had on there. You can talk about
guys that had opportunities in world title fights but haven't
really gotten over them, like a Seria Boetchin, for example,
or like a hot Rod collegiate or fighters like that.
Are a Vodzick that's trying to Alexander Vodzik, the former
light heavyweight champion, trying to come back like they're at
a certain point where this is probably the best thing
for them because they can get regular activity, make reasonable purses,
and other promoters aren't looking to use them because they
consisted either not real prospects, ballad guys playing out the
stray or just looked at his opponents. But then there's
gonna be the special type of guys who are legit
stars and money making entities, like like top pound for
pound level championship fighters like in Opatia, like e Connor
Ben like others that they're inevitably going to sign in
the future.
Speaker 1: And now I got you, yes, And I'm just you
gotta look at them and keep them saying and I
look at it this way, and I'm saying it for
like the third time. Don't talk to me about being
any different. You're one of them. You're doing the same things.
I guess.
Speaker 2: I look at like this TJ. You put you put
too much stock in their words. I don't believe promoters.
I agree.
Speaker 1: I agree with you on that, and we're seeing proof
of it here