White: UFC ‘100%’ going to get into the boxing business
White: “I’m getting into boxing with Ari and the UFC will be doing boxing, too. It’s still early. We’re still working on it.”
While mixed martial arts borrows heavily from boxing in terms of technique, and there is significant fan crossover, the UFC has often been viewed as a competitor to boxing. MMA is often perceived as the future, while boxing is considered by many a grandfather’s sport.
However, UFC president Dana White came to MMA from a background as an amateur boxer and boxing manager, and still deeply appreciates the Sweet Science. The league co-promoted the Mayweather vs. McGregor PPV monster in August, and during arecent gathering at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card West boxing club in Santa Monica, White said the UFC is going to get into the boxing business.
No, no, no, I’m not leaving the UFC,” he told Lance Pugmire for the LA Times. I’m getting into boxing with Ari [Emanuel, boss of UFC parent company WME/IMG] and the UFC will be doing boxing, too. It’s still early. We’re still working on it. I’ve got to get my s*** together, but I’m getting into boxing, man. It’s coming.
One possibility is working with the discrete but extremely powerful boxing figure Al Haymon, who has 200 fighters under contract, and runs the Premier Boxing Champions television series. White was told Haymon’s boxers could use White’s outsized personality and media presence to further their careers.
I agree,” he replied.
Al and I haven’t talked about this at all,” he added. “We’ll see who’s interested when I say, ‘Let’s do this.’
It’s harder than saying we’re getting into boxing. We still have to get some homework done. I feel like I can do it better than everyone else. I love the sport.
If you look at what we’ve done over the last 15 years, we’re not afraid to try new things.”
Roach too may play a role in the effort. The famed boxing trained cornered a UFC for the first time at UFC 217, helping welterweight G.O.A.T. Georges St-Pierre defeat Michael Bisping for the middleweight championship.
The figure least likely to be involved with White is Bob Arum, who recently charged that White wanted to get into boxing because MMA was failing.
F*** him. F*** that guy,” explained White to Jim Rome, as transcribed by Damon Martin for MMA Weekly. “This is the same guy who said this same s–t 15 years ago about me and the Fertittas. He said they’re losing oodles and oodles of money and this business was a joke, it was going to go under, nobody will ever be into a sport like this and here we are today.
This guy is such a jerk off. Literally the biggest piece of s*** in all of sports, Bob Arum, ladies and gentlemen.
So boxing f*** yes, Bob Arum f*** no.
