LAS VEGAS – Maybe it was the exuberance of seeing six of his eight Zuffa Boxing fights Sunday end in stoppage or knockout.
Or perhaps it was the signing of a former world champion and the visit of an ex-two-division champion still near his peak.
Whatever the source of Dana White’s enthusiasm over his new boxing promotion, the UFC CEO/President Sunday night let spew a barrage of verbal blows that would make his heaviest punchers proud.
Few were spared during White’s high about his inflating position in the sport after his three Zuffa cards on Paramount+.
White opened by targeting WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman, who was widely torched for seeking to charge his lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson $120,000 for fighting for – and winning – the WBO 140lbs belt versus Teofimo Lopez January 31.
Stevenson refused to pay, called the WBC “crooks” and even another sanctioning body figure said the timing of Sulaiman’s request is “basically doing the work for Zuffa.”
Said White: “This Sulaiman guy is incredible. He is the greatest P.R. guy for how fucked up boxing is of all time. He’s incredible. … That guy should keep doing interviews everyday. Keep talking. It’s incredible. I love it.”
White has pronounced he does not want Zuffa to work with the four major sanctioning bodies as he assembles a stable that has cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia and Sunday officially added former featherweight champion Mark Magsayo while drawing the interest of former two-division champion Teofimo Lopez, who attended Sunday’s card.
Asked if he wants Lopez on his roster, White said, “I’m interested in everybody.”
Nights like Sunday don’t hurt White’s expansion plan.
His three main-card bouts were all gripping. Lightweight Jaybrio Pe Benito stopped unbeaten Abel Mejia. Light-heavyweight Umar Dzambekov finished Ahmed Elbiali early in the second round with a sinister uppercut.
And ranked heavyweight contender Efe Ajagba said he put the division on notice by dropping former world champion Charles Martin and stopping him in the fourth.
“The energy in here is great,” White said of his 700-seat Apex. “The whole main card absolutely delivered. Great fights. The whole card was.”
While there’s much work to do and great promise to fulfill, White stopped Sunday to survey the landscape of Top Rank’s Bob Arum without a TV deal, Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions in a lawsuit with his best fighter, Vergil Ortiz Jnr, and Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions still more than a month away from its first pay-per-view of the year, and he expressed astonishment at the decline of the power brokers.
“There hasn’t been any pushback. This is like beating up babies,” White said.
“I feel like I came in and I’m beating up babies. I expected more. I expected some pushback, that there would be more pain. They’re all way out of their league – absolutely, positively out of their league. I’m actually shocked.
“At the end of the day, you guys are the experts. I’ll lay out the body of work this year and then you can judge me. Everybody knew this thing has been broken for a long time. I said what I was going to do. I never said anything bad about the WBC or IBF. I just said I’m not going to do business with them.”
He also isn’t hip to co-promote, although White has admitted there is a path to staging bouts between his best fighters and the others’ for The Ring belt funded by Zuffa’s backer Turki Alalshikh of Saudi Arabia.
White said he heard what Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said of plans for a Zuffa belt, calling it “cringey.”
“I saw Eddie Hearn saying the belt is cringey and all this stuff. I don’t think anybody looks at Eddie Hearn and says, ‘Oh, this guy’s a visionary.’ I look at him like I do most politicians: You’ve done nothing in this sport except stay in the lane, play by the rules and ride along with what’s been,” White said.
“You ended up being part of the problem. Eddie Hearn works for his dad [Barry]. I don’t think he’s ever come in with a vision, whereas we do. We’re going to change the entire sport. I understand the people who are the status quo don’t like it.”
White spoke as if he’s hearing some of the same industry speculation that pervades – that Top Rank and PBC could/should put their fights on DAZN along with Matchroom and Golden Boy and make it the established old guard versus the new kid in town.
“They can’t compete because they don’t know how to compete. There’s no vision there. I’m sitting here after my third fight,” White said.
“If your thing is as good as you think it is, and you are as good as you think you are, do your thing. Good luck to you. I’m going to do my thing and they’re going to do theirs.”
As Hearn and Ortiz representatives were apparently nearing a deal to stage a compelling junior-middleweight fight between unbeatens Ortiz Jnr and Jaron “Boots” Ennis, De La Hoya won a court ruling stopping the deal from taking place, and thus stopping the fight talks in their tracks.
White noticed De La Hoya’s trolling “Clapback Thursday” was missing last week, as another of his star fighters, Ryan Garcia, nears a Saturday welterweight title fight while intimating he could separate with Golden Boy after.
“There’s no clapback. What more could you say or do to Oscar De La Hoya right now?” White asked. “The ship is sinking [straight down] and he’s talking shit all the way down. So you’re telling me there was no ‘Clapback’ this Thursday? That’s weird. He’s been so consistent. Where is he?
“I hope we see one this Thursday. Can’t wait to watch it.”
