Eddie Hearn reacts to Shakur Stevenson leaving Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing before even fighting

Tom Eaton

Eddie Hearn reacts to Shakur Stevenson leaving Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing before even fighting
Image credit: Zuffa Boxing / Getty

Just months after signing with Zuffa Boxing, pound-for-pound star Shakur Stevenson has made the decision to split from Dana White’s promotional outfit. White’s newfound rival Eddie Hearn has reacted to the news of his departure.

Stevenson signed with Zuffa Boxing back in July, opting not to continue working with Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. Despite announcing that the move was to secure the biggest and best available fights, the four-division world champion has been waiting on the sidelines ever since, despite a number of rumoured opponents.

Most recently, the Newark southpaw was linked to an intriguing showdown with Devin Haney but, after talks for the clash collapsed, Stevenson has now had his request to be released from his promotional contract accepted.

Speaking to iFL TV, Hearn admitted that he thought that the announcement was a publicity stunt at first.

“Unbelievable. I thought it was a publicity stunt, to be honest with you. Until Shakur’s team called me and messaged me last night, I thought it was just a kind of stunt for an announcement because it was so bad, so embarrassing, so humiliating for Zuffa that I thought it couldn’t be real.

“It happened and, literally within 30 seconds, I had 50 messages, ‘Oh my God, have you seen this? Zuffa are finished, Zuffa have imploded, Dana White’s head is falling off’, and I thought, ‘nah, this cant be right.’

“How can you sign your most high-profile fighter and then he leaves you without even fighting? I don’t think that, in the history of boxing, that has ever happened.”

Hearn then went on to poke fun at White’s previous promises to make history in the sport of boxing and to be judged on Zuffa Boxing’s ‘body of work’ at the end of 2026.

“When Dana White says the history that Zuffa are going to make, the body of work that you are going to see by the end of the year, one thing that I will give to Zuffa is that they have made history there by actually signing a fighter and never giving him a fight. That is a great body of work there.”

Finally, Hearn applauded Stevenson for forcing his own departure, as the reigning WBO super-lightweight world champion seeks to move on from an extended period of inactivity and return to action as soon as possible.

“Fair play to Shakur Stevenson because he has had the balls to say, ‘Listen, this is not the place for me, these people don’t know what they are doing and I need to get out before my career is ruined,’. He made that move, his team made that move and now he has got to see what is next.”

Stevenson has declared that he plans to start his own promotional company in an attempt to get his career back on track, and will work with all others in the sport.

More stories