Dana White drew a firm line after UFC 317 when Tom Aspinall’s name came up, and the silence said plenty on its own. Speaking to reporters following the card headlined by Manel Kape vs. Kyoji Horiguchi, White refused to get into any discussion about the UFC heavyweight champion.
Dana White Shuts Down Questions on Tom Aspinall as UFC Tension Grows
White said he would not talk about Aspinall, then shifted to other business, including Anthony Joshua signing with CAA for sponsorship work. When the topic turned to Turki Alalshikh and the idea of helping smooth things over between White and Aspinall’s new representative Eddie Hearn, White gave a dry answer: “He’s made some pretty big things happen in the sport of boxing. This is his biggest challenge yet.”
That response landed at a tense time in Aspinall’s career. The 32-year-old from Salford recently signed a commercial and advisory agreement with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Talent Agency. The move does not change his UFC promotional deal, and it does not mean a boxing switch is in motion.
It places Hearn and Matchroom in charge of helping with commercial opportunities, media strategy, digital work, broadcast, publishing, and legal support, while Aspinall stays under UFC contract. The deal is still significant because Aspinall had long avoided formal outside representation, with his father and coach Andy Aspinall handling his affairs for most of his career.
The pairing carries extra heat because White and Hearn have spent weeks trading shots in public. Their friction grew in boxing circles first, then crossed into MMA once Hearn brought Aspinall into his new agency. Hearn has already gone public with criticism of Aspinall’s UFC pay, saying the champion is underpaid and even arguing White should release him from his contract. He claimed he could secure Aspinall far more money outside the current deal. That kind of language was never likely to improve White’s mood, especially with Aspinall holding the UFC heavyweight title and sitting at the center of a division that has stalled through injury and uncertainty.
The breakdown between White and Aspinall started before Hearn entered the picture. In Aspinall’s last fight, his title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi ended in a first-round no contest after repeated eye pokes. Aspinall later revealed he had suffered bilateral traumatic Brown’s syndrome, a rare eye condition that caused double vision and required surgery on both eyes in February 2026. His camp has since said he still has not been cleared for sparring or contact. White’s initial public comments after the bout created the real split. He suggested there was no real damage and implied Aspinall may have wanted out of the fight. That did not sit well with the champion or his team.
Aspinall later made clear he was disappointed by how the situation was handled. White did try to soften things in a later interview, saying he never meant to disrespect Aspinall and acknowledging that he needed to speak with him. But the issue never fully cooled. White’s refusal to discuss him now, at a time when Aspinall is working with Hearn and still recovering from a serious eye injury, adds to the sense that the relationship remains strained.
There is also a business angle that explains why this has become one of the more interesting stories in combat sports. Hearn’s agency signing Aspinall as its first athlete was a pointed move. It came shortly after White and the TKO-backed boxing push made fresh noise in the boxing market. Hearn then stepped into MMA’s biggest weight class by aligning with the UFC heavyweight champion. Even if this is framed as a commercial arrangement, it gives Aspinall a louder voice in negotiations and a figure in his corner who has no issue challenging White in public.
For the UFC, heavyweight is now in an awkward place. Aspinall is still the recognized champion, but he has not fought since the Gane bout ended early in October 2025. Gane picked up an interim heavyweight title at the White House card on June 14, with a future unification bout expected if Aspinall returns later this year. That keeps the division active, but it also creates more pressure around the champion’s timetable and his standing with the company. White’s latest comments did not answer any of those sporting questions.
