White Claims He’ll Fix Boxing’s Broken System
The way Boxing and MMA cards are put together and promoted could not be anymore different.
That was proven in November of 2018, when Golden Boy launched their first and as of now, only MMA card. Golden Boy followed the boxing model of one major fight with two name headliners (in this case a long-retired Chuck Liddell and a recently unretired Tito Ortiz), with a card filled with prospects, ex-UFC fighters, and those who were not well known by casual MMA fans.
The card was panned as MMA cards, especially UFC cards are predicated on depth and a full event for the main broadcast.
UFC President Dana White feels that the boxing industry’s reliance on these major fights with a lack of depth and a lack of quality cards to build new stars is what is holding the industry back.
“If you look at the way that it was in the 80s, 90s, even the early 2000s, you had [a few] guys that were [making money]. You had Floyd [Mayweather], you had [Manny] Pacquiao, [Oscar] Del La Hoya, maybe a couple other guys,” White said (via MMA Fighting). “But boxing as a whole, you’re talking about tons of fighters that weren’t making big money and weren’t in big fights. I think that the sport could be so much more.
“If you look at what [the UFC has] built over the last 20 years, and our events, and how many events we’re doing — we’re doing 42 events a year. Every time you go to one of our events, they’re either sold out or they break the record for ticket sales. This year we’re going to break the record for ticket sales, ever, in UFC history. There are more tickets being sold this year than ever before in the history of the company. We continue to put on these fights, people come and see them. They’re on TV, free, they’re on ESPN, which everybody has. And we’re still doing million-dollar gates on these things without the Mayweathers and those types of fights.
“You could build a business [like that] with boxing,” White continued. “Build a real business. You’ve just got to break it and rebuild it.”
Report: The Mac Life