Eddie Hearn is not a big fan of the UFC — or MMA as a whole — in 2025.
Hearn, who is one of the top promoters in boxing, got to talking about MMA during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. While he admitted that the UFC is solid as a brand, he has clearly soured on the promotion’s product of late.
Especially when compared to his beloved sport of boxing.
“Boxing’s on fire right now,” Hearn said. “It’s controlling all the narrative digitally, across social media on a far different level to MMA and UFC right now.
“MMA is the poor relative [of boxing] but it’s not their fault, really, what’s happening,” he added later. “It’s just a bit tired, isn’t it? It’s really down to the actual product, which is the fights. If you said to me right now, ‘name me six UFC superstars’ I couldn’t do it.”
Eddie Hearn said he can’t name 6 superstars in the UFC and called MMA a “poor relative” to boxing 😬
(via @arielhelwani) pic.twitter.com/ieMxeEVQcV
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) April 29, 2025
Hearn offered further criticism of the UFC from there, suggesting that the promotion’s top executives don’t like it when individual fighters begin to rival the popularity of the brand itself.
He pointed to the height of Conor McGregor’s UFC career as an example of this.
Eddie Hearn: UFC doesn’t want fighters to be bigger than the brand
“The problem is with the UFC, they always want the brand — their brand — to be bigger than the fighter,” he said. “When a star like Conor McGregor comes around, everything changes.”
It’s easy to read between the lines here, of course. UFC CEO Dana White recently announced plans to launch his own boxing promotion with the support of Saudi Arabian adviser Turki Al-Sheikh. While Hearn claims he is not intimated by having a new player in the market, it wouldn’t be surprising if it does bother him a bit.
“Those guys won’t be able to lace my boots in boxing promotion,” he said. “As a business, as an organization, as UFC, unbelievable. This is different.”
