Dana White Wants To Get Boxing Out of ‘Trouble’

Talking on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, White opened up about how he incorporated aspects of boxing into UFC and how he wishes to do the same with boxing.

“I took a lot of things from boxing that I loved and a lot of things from boxing that I hated when I started the UFC,” White said. “I’m going to do the same thing on the boxing side now.”

With White’s plans to get into the boxing space, boxing aficionados are undoubtedly excited for Zuffa Boxing. The venture, which will see his partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh and the firm Sela, will be a structured boxing promotion that is modeled after the UFC’s Contender Series.

The first big boxing card under this venture is planned for 2026, pending a broadcast rights deal. Moreover, White has announced plans for 16 to 18 boxing events in the very first year under the banner.

With the banner, he plans to bring boxing back to its glory days. He mentioned that boxing used to stir a lot of excitement from fans when major names fought each other. However, as the purses grew larger, these big fights grew rarer, which led to the downfall of the sport.

“First, what I saw, amateur boxing, they had the box-offs, and it left, it was on one of the big networks, and I saw amateur boxing starting to fall apart, and I said these guys are in trouble, and we jumped in and started doing our thing,” he said. “Everything in life is about timing. My move into boxing right now is about timing; it’s the perfect time.”

“I Want To Compete”

This surely seems to have paved the way for another battle of the gargantuans, this time with boxing promotion supremo, Eddie Hearn. Talking on the Ariel Helwani Show, he mentioned that he was excited about seeing White venture into boxing and revealed that he would be taking it as a challenge of sorts.

“You’re not going to see me slagging off Dana White – not because I don’t want to upset him, because I respect him. The one thing 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,” he said. “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.”