In recent years, Saudi Arabian sheikhs have been actively involved in boxing and, thanks to significant financial investments, have managed to essentially revive the royal sport. Prior to this, boxing was mercilessly criticized, and one of the main critics was UFC director Dana White.
There are actually quite a few complaints about this sport. The unwillingness of strong rivals to fight each other, organizations that “produce” a bunch of weight classes and devalue the status of a world champion, and of course, promoters who are constantly busy sharing. White also used to say that the modern boxing model was built incorrectly: “We are running a real business, unlike boxing. Every boxing event is an event comparable to a bankruptcy. They are trying to get as much money as possible. Name me a sport or any other business in the history of the world that generated billions of dollars in revenue but ended up with nothing. This is boxing. The two guys at the top of the card take everything. And how many fights a year do they fight? One? Three? Five? I have 52-53 tournaments every year. We are reinvesting in the sport. We have the infrastructure and 450 permanent employees.”
And when Dana tried to get into boxing with Conor McGregor and agreed to co-promote, he was convinced he was right: “When we put together the McGregor-Mayweather fight, I just looked at it and accepted everything as it was. I just think the guys who promote boxing are bad at it. I don’t think they can do a good job, I can do a better job. I think we can do this a lot better. I can put everything together in a system where everyone in the middle can make a lot of money and the top fighters can make a lot of money. It will be possible to have an equal distribution of money.”
More than seven years have passed since the McGregor-Mayweather fight, and since then Dana White has occasionally stirred up the public with arguments that he will one day come to boxing and try to start a revolution there. He said this in 2017 and spoke about a possible collaboration with Al Haymon, not forgetting to criticize modern promoters. Then, after a while, Dana returned to talking about boxing, and last year there was insider information about the creation of a new promotion company: “I don’t know if I can fix anything in this sport, but I think I can organize fights that people will want to see. I can make boxing interesting again and build a brand around it.”
Dana Blanco
Photo: Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
In general, when an entrepreneur like Dana White starts a business, the chances of success automatically increase. The man managed to turn MMA from a “show for the marginalized”, banned worldwide, into one of the most popular sports, and then managed to promote the Slap League. Entering boxing will not be easy, but Dana absolutely has the potential to create another successful project.
The other day, White made his intentions clear: “We’ve been beating around the bush for a long time, but if you look back you’ll see that I never said I was coming to boxing, because I never promise anything that hasn’t been decided yet. Now I say: I’m going to boxing.”
I have to say that the UFC boss picked the perfect time. Not long ago, Turki Al al-Sheikh announced plans to create a unified boxing league and then, by a remarkable coincidence, received praise from Dana White: “When you look at what Turki Al al-Sheikh has done, you’ll understand that it took money from Saudi Arabia to make fights that you never thought possible or only dreamed of. This is the first person to reinvest in boxing. Everybody else just takes money without reinvesting. It’s like selling out every single event every time promoters put on an event. ‘Let’s take as much money as possible and run away.’ And Turki is actually reinvesting in the sport, and that’s interesting to me.”
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Needless to say, for the past seven years, when White talked about boxing, he mentioned only one league? There is nothing surprising; this is a proven model that works quite successfully in the UFC. And it is almost certain that White’s decision to enter boxing is directly related to Turki Al ash-Sheikh’s plans. The huge amount of money that Saudi Arabia can invest and White’s ability to make the most of such a business could create a very strong combination that will damage the current order in world boxing.
From this point of view, Dana’s idea is not at all a utopia, but quite the opposite. Moreover, the UFC and the sheikhs now have a successful experience of cooperation. The recent UFC 306, as promised, was accompanied by a truly grandiose spectacle. This can be called in part the work of the Turkish-White team.
Turks Al ash-Sheikh
Photo: Richard Pelham/Getty Images
The fact that Dana and the UFC are doing well in boxing is hinted at by Roy Jones Jr., who set the MMA promotion as an example for boxing promoters: “When you go to the UFC, you can’t be sure that someone will definitely win, so this is the way they work… The public gets fights with win-win chances because they look at the fighters, not the track record. They understand what people in boxing don’t understand: it’s the clash of styles, not the track record, that makes fights interesting. In the UFC, they think first and foremost about who the fighter is and what he has to offer – it’s a big mistake for boxing to lose sight of this.”
Jones also noted that in boxing, usually only a couple of main events are interesting, and the UFC is creating a more uniform and richer program. This is usually true. And it is quite possible that in the near future Turki Al ash-Sheikh will stop “feeding” other promoters and start a revolution in the world of boxing together with Dana White.
And the most important thing is that we, the public, will only benefit from this, because boxing will get rid of many negative aspects and will receive a complete reboot. The first “swallows” in the form of broadcasts of boxing tournaments on UFC Fight Pass have already arrived, and then White and his team will begin to actively enter boxing. At the very least, it will be interesting to watch.
