Dana White never minces his words when talking about Eddie Hearn, and that remained the case once again when reporters asked him about the British boxing promoter’s recent tirade on the UFC and Tom Aspinall. A couple of days ago, as Aspinall’s manager, Hearn, in a rant aimed at White, demanded the UFC release their heavyweight champion in return for him dropping the legal cases against former Matchroom star Conor Benn.

Citing Tom Aspinall as being “grossly underpaid” by the promotion, Hearn suggested they release him so he could get paid at least “three times more than what Dana White is paying him.” Well, speaking to reporters after the Zuffa Boxing 7 in the UK, the UFC CEO, in his response to the suggestion, labeled Hearn “stupid.”

“He said they want him released, right?” Dana White stated. “You release ‘Bam’ Rodriguez then. Sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it? Congratulations again, Eddie. You sound stupid again.”

The 56-year-old’s dig involved one of Matchroom’s most prized fighters, Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, who just hours ago had defeated WBA bantamweight champion Antonio Vargas in Arizona to become a three-division champion. According to reports, Zuffa Boxing under White has pursued Bam Rodriguez for a while now. However, unlike Conor Benn and Jai Opetaia, Hearn has managed to hold onto the young pound-for-pound great despite Zuffa’s best efforts. He even resigned with Eddie Hearn in April after the promoter matched Zuffa’s last offer.

So, Dana White dragging in Jesse Rodriguez in response to Hearn’s suggestion on Aspinall appears to be tit-for-tat. However, White also stated that the UFC still values Aspinall greatly despite his manager’s suggestions. Despite this, the UFC CEO clarified that he cannot force the heavyweight champion to fight in the cage if his manager doesn’t allow him to.

“If Eddie’s not gonna let his fighter fight, what are you gonna do?” White added. “You can’t make anybody fight. You can’t force anybody to fight. You have to want to fight. So we’ll see how it plays out. Eddie, who apparently, you know, [Conor Benn] was his best friend. Eddie’s been crying, literally crying for weeks.

“’He’s my best friend,’ and he didn’t even want to pay him, but he wants to pay my guy. He could have paid his best friend, and they could have remained best friends. He’s full of a lot of s–t. You know it. I know it. You know it. We all know it.”

This was in response to Eddie Hearn suggesting that he wouldn’t let Tom Aspinall fight the winner of Ciryl Gane vs Alex Pereira for the kind of money they are currently paying him.

Now, after Dana White’s fiery response, it’s expected that the English promoter would also reply in kind, and that’s exactly what he did.

Eddie Hearn accuses Dana White of “robbing” Tom Aspinall

Immediately after Dana White concluded his tirade, Eddie Hearn fired back at the UFC CEO. The British promoter didn’t hold back and accused White of “robbing” their heavyweight champion while paying Conor Benn the exorbitant amount of money they are paying him.

“When Conor Benn went, he said, ‘He should be happy for Conor Benn, because we should want the fighters to get as much money as possible,’” Eddie told IFL TV. “But you don’t want Tom Aspinall to make as much money as possible. You want to rob Tom Aspinall, that’s what you want to do. You wanna give Tom Aspinall around 1/50th of the revenue, because you’re an absolute disgrace to the UFC fighters, and all you’re worried about consistently is the bottom line.”

While Eddie Hearn admitted that he “blames” himself for the Conor Benn fallout, the British promoter claimed that it wasn’t the $15 million Zuffa deal that particularly hurt their relationship. It was how the split happened, with Benn not accepting a “call” after the deal with Zuffa was finalized. For Eddie Hearn, with whom Benn had been since the beginning of his career, that move was distressing.

Regardless, Hearn believes that the Benn situation is very different from what Dana White is painting it as, since they are paying Conor Benn, who’s a recent signee to their Zuffa promotion, more than their UFC heavyweight champion.

With both promoters trying to get on each other’s nerves, it’s likely that the dispute would stay intact for a long time. Still, with Eddie Hearn being adamant about Tom Aspinall not fighting in the UFC under his current deal, it does raise a question about what happens with the UFC’s heavyweight division next once Pereira vs. Gane happens at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14.