Dana White Hopes to Fix ‘Busted’ Sport of Boxing

Talking to Vegas PBS, White expressed his desire to improve the sport and shed light on the Contender series that he had planned.

“Basically, in 2026, I’m going to start my show, and what I’m going to do is basically like Contender Series. The best will fight the best, undefeated guys will fight undefeated guys, and what you will do is you will care about the first fight of the night, and not just the main event. So I will build stars, put on great fights, and then these guys will graduate and fight with Sheik Turki,” he said.

White expressed that his main goal was to take boxing to new heights, exactly in line with what he had done with the UFC. White stated that they had taken UFC to the level of the NFL and NBA, a level that he wishes to see the sport of boxing reach.

Moving into the boxing space with TKO and Zuffa Boxing, he promised his own boxing version of Contender Series that serves as a feeder system to the bigger boxing promotion of Turki Alalshikh .

The UFC boss mentioned that by reinvesting in the league and the sport of boxing as a whole, other sponsors will also be motivated to invest. Which in turn would mean a better financial standing for boxing.

“Listen, there’s no ego or arrogance when I talk about getting into boxing and trying to ‘fix it.’ This is a busted sport,” he said.

“I Want To Compete Against Dana White”

These words, however, haven’t sat well with Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn . In fact, he revealed that he plans to compete with White to sit on the throne of boxing promotions.

“He wants to be the CEO of boxing? Because they’re trying to get the Muhammad Ali Act changed,” he said. “The one thing that I would really like at this point in my career is to go head-to-head with him and to take him on. I want to compete against Dana White. I want to prove that I’m much better than him as a boxing promoter. So, I’m excited for him to come into the space.”