Michael Bisping has recently voiced his suspicions that boxing promoter Eddie Hearn is using his management deal with Tom Aspinall as a way to get as his rival Dana White, and it’s now led to a back-and-forth verbal feud between the two.
On a recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show, Hearn called out Bisping specifically, suggesting he was only speaking out because he’s a UFC color commentator.
“These are people that are on the payroll,” Hearn told Helwani. “These are people who have been suppressed themselves, and these are people who don’t have any backbone about them. Michael Bisping should be ashamed of what is being proposed to Tom Aspinall to be in a fight like Ciryl Gane with that amount of money that is in the pot. He is a fighter. He should stand up for what’s right for fighters. So what are you saying, Bisping? ‘Do as you’re told, shut up, take your money. That’s all you’re worth?’”
Hearn also challenged Bisping to a debate about the issue, and he’s drawn a response from the former UFC middleweight champion.
“He wants to have a debate?” Bisping said on his Believe You Me podcast “I’m not having a debate online, but I’m very happy, next time I’m in London, to sit down face to face, man to man, and have a conversation like that. OK, Eddie? Let’s see if he keeps the same energy. Eddie Hearn was talking sh*t about me and [about Paul Felder too], really, but he only named me,. He said he wants a debate. He said again he wants a debate. He said the word. ‘I should be ashamed because I don’t want Tom Aspinall to get paid.’
“Why should I be ashamed? I have no idea the money that Tom is getting paid. I’m not a part of that. All I ever said, and I think anyone with half an ounce of intelligence can see it, that Eddie Hearn is muddying the waters with something between him and Dana White and his perceived war and beef that he has with Dana. That’s all I said. I never mentioned a goddamn word about his compensation.
“I hope Tom Aspinall gets paid sh*t loads. I hope you can go out there and get him a contract for $30 million per fight. It’s no skin off my nose. That’s what I want for all fighters. What the f*ck are you talking about, Eddie? That’s it. I just had to say that. That’s a lie. To say those word, that I should be ashamed – I never said that. I just said it’s a bit weird that he’s not fighting, and Eddie Hearn is now managing him. We all know that.”
“It’s absolute horse sh*t what Eddie Hearn is saying,” Bisping concluded. “And he wants to have a debate? Eddie, all you little sh*ts out there, I don’t want you to get it twisted: I care about fighters. We care deeply about this sport, and this is why we are commentators. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
