Dana White has shrugged off news that the UFC’s heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has signed a deal to be represented by his rival promoter Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Talent Agency.

White was asked about the development from earlier that day when he was at the UFC 326 pre-fight press conference, but didn’t appear to be losing any sleep over it.

“We don’t have any issues with Eddie [Hearn],” White said during the UFC 326 pre-fight presser. “They can get whoever they want to represent them. Tito Ortiz used to represent people and we got it done.”

Meanwhile, in an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, which appeared to be recorded before Aspinall’s latest news, White acknowledged that he and the UFC heavyweight champion should talk to smooth over some tension in their relationship.

“Tom and I obviously need to talk,” White told Piers Morgan. “Him and his dad came out recently and said they felt like – I don’t know how they said it – but that I had sort of s*** on him in the way that I had spoken about his eye injury. That was absolutely positively not the case.

“Tom Aspinall is a guy that I respect, he’s been great to work with, never once did I question his injury or speak negatively about him. I said ‘I think he’s okay, and I think he’s going to be good’ and they came out and said ‘no that is not the case’.

“He said ‘I haven’t even talked to Dana I don’t know why he would even say that’, but obviously my medical team is talking to him. That was what I had thought, but they thought that I was knocking him in some way. I absolutely and positively didn’t and wouldn’t, I like him very much and respect him. I’ve never had a problem with Tom Aspinall.”

Despite White’s denials, the general sense has been that he’s been quick to dismiss and downplay Aspinall’s eye injury since it occurred, while showing little concern for his well-being.

And the fact that White still hasn’t personally reached out to check up on one of the UFC’s biggest stars four months later, even after he had to undergo surgery, only backs up that assumption.

So it certainly seems like the Aspinall situation has been mishandled, and could have been a reason why Hearn has now been able to throw a spanner in the works,.

However, dealing with this kind of tension and bad blood is nothing new for White, and so with the champ still under contract with the UFC it seems to be business as usual for now.