Eddie Hearn and Dana White discussed UFC ‘stadium shows’ at London event

UFC London drew 17,081 fans, making it the highest-grossing sporting event in the venue’s history

Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn attended UFC London this month (Getty Images)

Eddie Hearn and Dana White discussed the prospect of the UFC hosting events in UK stadia while the pair chatted at UFC London, according to the Matchroom Sport chairman.

Boxing promoter Hearn and his star fighter Anthony Joshua were both in attendance at the O2 Arena on Saturday night, with Hearn spending much of the evening talking to UFC president White.

With UFC London – the first edition of the event since 2019 – drawing 17,081 fans, the card marked the highest-grossing sporting event in the O2 Arena’s history.

“It was quite interesting to learn about the sport and see it up close,” Hearn said on The DAZN Boxing Show.

“No, no business talk [with White]; it was more that there was a huge amount of Brits on the card, and he was saying: ‘It is unbelievable all these Brits are winning, normally we come to the UK once a year, but we may have to come back in the summer.’

“I was talking to him a bit about some stadiums that are here, obviously you had two Scousers [Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann] on the card, so we were talking a bit about Anfield.

Paddy Pimblett wants to headline at Anfield, the home of Liverpool FC (Getty Images)

“He was educating me about the fighters, and during the fight he was saying like: ‘Look at the hold he has got there, he can’t breathe’. It was an amazing experience to watch it up close.

“He’s a legendary promoter, Dana White, so it was amazing to watch that whole machine in flow.”

Hearn has said that he could venture into mixed martial arts promotion in the future, though his focus is currently on Dillian Whyte’s heavyweight title shot against Tyson Fury next month.

Whyte faces his fellow Briton at a sold-out Wembley Stadium on 23 April, in what is Fury’s first fight on home soil since 2018.