Is Dana White biting off more than he can chew with his new boxing endeavor?
Earlier this year, White announced that he was finally getting into the boxing business, using the UFC model as a blueprint to help “break down” a sport that has lost its way and rebuild it “from the ground up.” However, White is likely to run into a lot of opposition along the way.
In short, White’s plan aims to disregard the four sanctioning bodies of professional boxing (WBO, WBC, WBA, and IBF) in favor of a simpler model that will see one champion per weight class with contenders working their way up the rankings, similar to fighters in the UFC.
It certainly seems like a solid enough idea, especially for new fans of the sport, but Matchroom Boxing chairman Eddie Hearn remains skeptical.
During a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Hearn offered his honest take on White’s plans for the boxing business and made it clear that neither he nor other established promoters in the fight game are going to just roll over and let White run roughshod over the business they’ve championed for years.
“Those guys, in my opinion, won’t be able to lace my boots in boxing promotion,” Hearn said. “Now, as a business, as an organization, as UFC, [they are] unbelievable, but this is different. When you go to sleep as a boxing promoter, when you wake up in the morning, nothing is the same. You have to sleep with one eye open every single night. This is different.
“If you think you’re going to control this world, which is what they’ve really done in MMA, and I think that’s a similar model they’ll try to bring into boxing, I don’t think it’s possible. It doesn’t matter who is involved; you’ve still gotta come in and beat the system. People like me, people like Oscar De La Hoya, people like Bob Arum, people like Frank Warren aren’t gonna roll over and go, ‘Oh, well, it’s been a great run, hasn’t it? TKO is here now.’ It’s not going to go down like that.”
Hearn criticises Dana white’s Ability—or lack thereof—to create stars
Hearn believes another problem that will plague Dana White’s new boxing venture is his inability to create new stars.
There’s no denying that White has done a bang-up job turning the Ultimate Fighting Championship into the destination for mixed martial arts, but the number of legitimate superstars the promotion has produced is shockingly low.
Hearn believes that’s because the powers that be in the UFC are more concerned with building the company brand rather than marketing fighters who actually sell the product.
“If you said to me now, name me six UFC superstars, I couldn’t do it,” Hearn continued. “I could give you the ones that seem to keep losing a bit, and then just comes back. But what’s that, just a period with Khabib (Nurmagomedov) and Conor (McGregor), like those kinds.
“For me, in boxing, yes, Matchroom Boxing is a brand, and Top Rank is a brand, but the brand is the fighters, and they have their own individual brands, and you want that to resonate with the fanbase. I always say to a fighter when we’ve got to build their profile, I don’t want you to be fake. Be yourself, and it’s up to us as the promoter to build you as a brand, because that’s how the fanbase tunes in.
“Yeah, I know Conor Benn, he’s the destroyer. Eubank (Jr), he’s the guy that walks around with his dad, AJ (Anthony Joshua) is a clean-cut guy, Tyson Fury is just this character that’s out there. They’re the characters, and it’s like WWE without the script. The problem is with UFC, I feel like they always want their brand to be bigger than that of the fighter, and when a star like Conor McGregor comes around, everything changes, and I don’t think they really like that.
