Dana White says Fury vs Joshua was meant to be announced at UFC White House before 'f*ckery'

UFC CEO Dana White says the original plan was to announce Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua at UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House this summer, but that "f*ckery" got in the way. White made the comments on Tuesday, October 13, on The Pat McAfee Show, as reported by MMA Fighting. On the same day, Fury's manager Spencer Brown appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show and explained why the two heavyweights ended up with different contracts regarding White's involvement.

Fury vs Joshua takes place on December 11 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

White: 'A lot of f*ckery has gone on'

Fury attended UFC White House and appeared in a short on-camera segment, where many expected him to formally announce the Joshua fight. That did not happen. According to White, it was supposed to.

"Yeah. F*ckery [happened]. A lot of f*ckery has gone on since then," White said. "And here we are. We finally got here. We have tickets on sale. Tickets did well. So it's been interesting, but I knew these types of things were going to happen when I got involved in the sport of boxing."

White again insisted he is part of the event. "We're promoting and producing the fight," he said, adding that when tickets went on sale there were fewer than 700 left, which he described as basically a sellout.

White also admitted he had pushed for Madison Square Garden in New York, while Joshua and Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn insisted on the United Kingdom. "Eddie pushed hard for this thing to be in the U.K. I was trying to do it in MSG. It's in the U.K. and sold out an 80,000-seat stadium," White said, while maintaining that New York would also have sold out.

Spencer Brown on the two contracts

Speaking to Ariel Helwani, Brown said Fury's original deal also excluded White and his companies, but that changed when the venue plans shifted.

"At first, in our contract, there was no involvement from TKO, there was no involvement from Dana White, there was no involvement from Zuffa. But that got changed because we changed venues, and when we changed our contract," Brown said. "We had two different contracts. We actually took it out because we didn't see any problem in Dana White promoting the fight, especially in America."

Joshua's side, according to Brown's account, kept the original terms. Brown also said there were "four or five different places" and different times of year considered before the fight was finalised, and that one of the "silliest" arguments was over whose name went first on the poster, which he said Netflix decided.

Asked who is producing the event, Brown said he believes Saudi company Sela is behind the production and most of the ticketing, but added that he could not say whether White has an interest. He also said he would like to see White and Hearn share a stage at a press conference, while admitting "Eddie's winning the war of words."

The background

The dispute between White and Hearn has followed the fight since it was confirmed. Hearn has said Joshua's contract bars TKO and Zuffa Boxing from promotional involvement, and last week told Uncrowned that TKO offered Joshua around $10 million on top of his purse to allow TKO to lead-promote the fight in the United States, which Joshua turned down. TKO has not publicly confirmed that offer.

Despite the war of words, all sides now say the fight is moving forward as planned in Cardiff on December 11.