Hearn Wants Aspinall's UFC Release

Eddie Hearn has made Dana White a direct offer — walk away from the legal complications surrounding the Conor Benn signing in exchange for Tom Aspinall's release from his UFC contract.

"I would trade that up. I'll walk away from all the problems they've got on the Conor Benn legal situation if they release Tom Aspinall. And I will — in writing because it will be five or six times more he'll be making — put down that he will make a minimum of three times more than he will under his current contract. Then we can all celebrate a great athlete, a great fighter, and someone that deserves to make as much money from the sport, like Dana said,” Hearn

The offer brings together two of the sport's most active feuds in a single transaction. Hearn signed Aspinall to a management deal in March, framed at the time as having no connection to his boxing promotion. The Benn legal situation, meanwhile, has been one of the more acrimonious promotional disputes in recent British boxing history, with Hearn feeling blindsided by Zuffa's signing of a fighter he considered part of his stable.

Hearn's characterisation of Aspinall's UFC earnings as "disgusting" lands in the context of a heavyweight champion who has been sidelined since October 2025 with a serious eye injury, watching the division move around him while his contract ties him to a promotion he cannot currently fight for.

Whether White engages with the offer is another matter entirely. The UFC has never been in the habit of releasing active champions at a rival's request, and the Benn legal situation — whatever its merits — represents a separate dispute that the promotion may not view as something worth trading away a contracted heavyweight champion to resolve.