UFC boss Dana White ready to run boxing shows after success of Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather
Zuffa took control of the UFC in 2001 for around £1.5million before building up the brand and selling for over £3billion
UFC boss Dana White could move into boxing promoting after the financial success of Conor McGregor’s fight with Floyd Mayweather.
The MMA kingpin played a key part in negotiating the billion-dollar boxing show, with the Ultimate Fighting Championship taking a healthy slice of McGregor’s pay.
White’s Zuffa company took control of the UFC in 2001 for around £1.5million and built the brand up with stars like McGregor.
In 2016 the fight promotion was sold to WME–IMG for over £3b and they agreed to let their golden boy take a break from his watertight contract to step into boxing for one lucrative dance.
During the build-up to the fight White was seen wearing a Zuffa boxing shirt, teasing the idea that the MMA company will be making a move from the octagon into the ring.
And, on a recent podcast, White told the respected Wall Street Journal: “I could see bringing boxing under our umbrella and trying to see what we could do with that. I could see us doing that.
“You had all these boxing experts saying Conor would not touch Mayweather with one punch.
“It did 6.7million pay-per-views globally. We broke the record in Australia. We broke the record in the UK, at four in the morning. And we broke the record in Spain and Canada.
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“Fighting works everywhere, I don’t care what colour you are, what country you come from or what language you speak.
“We are all human beings, fighting is in our DNA, we get it and we like it.
“This is what I truly believe; two men were put on this Earth, one man threw a punch and the other ran over to watch.
“Fighting is the first sport ever in the history of the world and it will be the last.”
