KICK UP THE ASP

White hammers Hearn over 'stupid' demand

- GARY HITCHCOCK

AN eye for an eye is ironically the strategy both Dana White and Eddie Hearn appear to have adopted as their battle for boxing dominance spills over into the Octagon.

UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, who signed with Hearn’s Matchroom Sport agency in March, has now been thrust to the centre of the ongoing row between the two promoters.

Now back in training following the repeated eye pokes that stopped his title defence against Ciryl Gane last October, leading to surgery, Manchester's Aspinall was set to take a good look at his comeback opponent on next weekend’s White House supershow.

However, Hearn wants the Brit released from the UFC, claiming that he could earn “a minimum of three times more than he will under his current contract”.