UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall signs with Eddie Hearn: ‘Time to get what’s yours’

Tom Aspinall is still recovering from double eye surgery suffered in his most recent fight against Ciryl Gane

Tom Aspinall Eddie Hearn

Damon Martin is a veteran journalist and insider covering combat sports since 2003.

UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has new representation and it’s none other than Eddie Hearn.

The stunning news was announced on Thursday after Aspinall teased he was getting “back to business” as he boarded a flight. It turns out, he was traveling to Monaco to ink a deal with Hearn to serve as his agent, which seemingly escalates the ongoing war the Matchroom Boxing chairman has engaged with UFC CEO Dana White after he launched Zuffa Boxing.

“Welcome to the team UFC heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall,” Hearn wrote on Instagram. “Time to get what’s yours.”

Following news of the signing, Aspinall released a video explaining his decision to team up with Hearn and his new talent agency.

“I have signed with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom on a commercial advisory deal,” Aspinall said. “We’ve done most of my career with the really small team that I’ve got but I wanted to add to my value. Eddie’s someone that I’ve known for a fair bit, I trust Eddie and I want to make as much money and grow commercially as much as possible while I’m fighting.

“Obviously, we’re still recovering but I’m looking to get back in there as soon as possible.”

The signing comes after Zuffa Boxing inked a lucrative one-fight deal with Conor Benn, who had been promoted by Hearn for almost his entire career. The deal was reportedly worth $15 million and Hearn later admitted that he was hurt and felt “massively betrayed” by the signing, especially after he found out via email from Benn’s attorney.

That led to a war of words with White through various interviews with the UFC CEO saying recently “is there a bigger p*ssy than Eddie Hearn?” after seeing his emotional response to losing Benn to Zuffa Boxing.

Hearn then fired back and said he had no regrets about saying he was upset by the whole ordeal and added that White and his team at Zuffa Boxing don’t “give a f*ck about the fighters.”

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The back-and-forth continued with White actually saying he had no personal issues with Hearn and originally had no plans to go after him or Matchroom but then Hearn effectively issued a challenge, which led to Zuffa Boxing responding.

Now Hearn had fired his own salvo by signing Aspinall and representing him as an agent, which should make future negotiations with the UFC very interesting.

“I got to know Tom and I got to know Andy [Aspinall] and I was pretty shocked by the potential that was out there in terms of where he’s at and how he feels,” Hearn said about working with Aspinall. “You’re talking about the UFC world heavyweight champion. You’re talking about one of the biggest stars in British sport. You’re talking about one of the biggest stars globally. In a boxing sense, you are the baddest man on the planet and that’s what he is. He’s a good guy.

“I felt like I met a man that was just a little bit broken, if I’m honest with you. One of the things he said to me ‘you sure you want to represent me? I’m a bit of a broken record at the moment.’ I said what are you talking about? You’re the UFC world heavyweight champion. You’re one of the most fierce fighters on the planet and I see you as a massive star. Get your chin up. Get your mojo up.”

Aspinall hasn’t fought since this past October when his first title defense as undisputed heavyweight champion ended after he suffered a brutal eye poke in the opening round in his bout against Ciryl Gane. In the aftermath of that injury, Aspinall had double eye surgery and still hasn’t been cleared to return to action yet.

Obviously now Aspinall has Hearn in his corner when it comes time to negotiate his next fight with the UFC whenever that happens. Hearn did make it clear that Aspinall is working towards his UFC return and this new deal isn’t a back door to bring him to boxing … at least not yet anyways.

“He has a contract with the UFC,” Hearn said. “This isn’t about bringing him into boxing. This is a commercial representation and advisory capacity to help him across all of his business. I’m sure and everything I hear, he can go in there and do serious damage in the boxing world but it’s not on the short term agenda.”