UFC president Dana White announced his intention to expand his promotional interests into boxing last year and it appears as though he has his first target in sight: unified heavyweight world titleholder Anthony Joshua.
White is making a bid to sign Joshua to a multi-fight deal that could be worth upward of $500 million, according to a report Wednesday in the United Kingdom's Daily Telegraph.
White plans to attend Joshua's world title unification fight with New Zealand's Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) on March 31 (Showtime, 5 p.m. ET) at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. While there, according to the report, he plans to meet with Joshua and his team.
However, Joshua remains under contract to Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn. Joshua and Hearn downplayed the report on Wednesday night.
Speaking on a conference call with boxing reporters to discuss the showdown with Parker, ESPN asked both of them about the Daily Telegraph report.
Joshua made it clear that, though he was open to doing business with UFC, he had no intention of leaving Hearn, who has promoted every one of his fights.
"Listen, I'm riding with Eddie. I've been riding with Eddie. He got me from the get-go," Joshua said. "I'm not into the UFC, so I don't know what their plans are. ... I'm interested because we can all work together. Remember, mine and Eddie's relationship is a really good working relationship. And I'm sure Eddie has an interest in working with Dana White. If it's good business, it makes sense.
"We'll listen and 100 percent, if it makes sense we're all ears, man. I'm happy that Dana is coming into the game. Hopefully, he can add some excitement and we can progress forward and make some good money and make some good fights."
Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs), 28, of England, is arguably boxing's biggest global star and would be an obvious target for anyone getting involved in the promotional end of the sport. White, with the UFC's deep pockets, has said he is in the process of applying for a boxing promoter's license in Nevada.
Joshua has set pay-per-view records in the United Kingdom and drawn massive crowds. By the time his fight with Parker is in the books he will have drawn nearly 250,000 fans to stadiums for his previous three fights -- a British-record boxing crowd of 90,000 to Wembley Stadium in London for his epic 11th-round knockout of former longtime world champion Wladimir Klitschko in the 2017 fight of the year last April; a sell-out crowd of 78,000 to Principality Stadium for his 10th-round knockout of Carlos Takam in October; and another 78,000 sellout is expected for the fight with Parker next week.
Joshua's contract with Hearn has about a year to go on it and Hearn said he is open to doing business with White.
"If Dana White wants to speak to us, obviously Anthony is with us, we're willing to talk to anybody," Hearn said on Wednesday night's media call. "We do great business with everyone -- Bernd Boente, Duco Events. I work with Top Rank, Golden Boy, Al Haymon. We work with anyone if the business is right."
Then Hearn drew a big laugh when he added, "In the meantime, I'll sign [UFC top draw] Conor McGregor and it will all be fair."