This will be an interesting meeting.
UFC President Dana White is reportedly going to be in Cardiff next weekend for Anthony Joshua’s monster heavyweight title fight against Joseph Parker.
While White will be sat ringside at the Principality Stadium as a boxing fan, he also intends to sit down with Joshua and his team in order to discuss a potential deal.
White is eager to apply for a boxing promoter’s licence and take his expertise to that realm this year, and he’s identified the matchlessly marketable ‘AJ’ as the perfect fighter to lead the UFC’s charge into pure pugilism.
The Telegraph reports that the UFC is prepared to offer Joshua a multi-fight deal worth in excess of £350 million but the London 2012 gold medallist insists that he has no intention of abandoning current promoter Eddie Hearn.
“Listen, I’m riding with Eddie,” Joshua said during a conference call on Wednesday night. “I’ve been riding with Eddie. He’s backed me from the get-go. And then the second thing, I’m a boxer. I’m not into the UFC, so I don’t know what their plans are. But anytime I’ve been asked about UFC, it’s if I would make that crossover like McGregor did with Mayweather.”
While Joshua only recently named both Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou as potential opponents if he was to try his hand at mixed martial arts, a more feasible scenario would be ‘AJ’ continuing to box but under the UFC banner.
Joshua has been exclusively promoted by Hearn’s Matchroom organisation thus far in his professional career but he’s yet to fight outside the United Kingdom.
With plans to crack America after his upcoming unification bout, Joshua is open to the idea of working with White, as long as Hearn stays involved.
“Oh yeah, a hundred percent,” Joshua said.
“I’m interested because we can all work together. Mine and Eddie’s relationship is a really good working relationship. You know? And I’m sure Eddie has an interest in working with Dana White. If it’s good business, it makes sense. I’m not in the business and I’m sure Eddie isn’t in it to say, ‘Oh, Dana White, we’re not interested in working with you,’ when we don’t know what’s on the table.
“We’ll listen and a hundred percent, if it makes sense, we’re all ears, man. So I’m happy that Dana’s coming into the game. Hopefully, he can add some excitement, and we can progress forward and make some good money and make some good fights.”
