In September, Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford dominated the headlines in the combat sports world. From fans to experts, everyone was talking about how historic the event was, especially with Dana White involved as a promoter. In the end, the spectacle delivered. However, while fight week was largely positive for the company, there was still some room for heated exchanges to creep in. Particularly between the UFC CEO and the media.
At the pre-fight press conference, White faced some tough questions. Boxing journalist Sean Zittel asked why the UFC chief wanted to amend the Muhammad Ali Act, designed to protect fighters. Things caught fire when White fired back, “Listen, if you want to be an a—hole, let’s do it in private and we can do an interview.” And the follow-up questions about the UFC facing lawsuits added fuel to the fire. One boxing writer even suggested that moment prevented the week from being called great.
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Dan Rafael doubts Canelo-Crawford fight week’s great status due to Dana White’s media squabble
At the pro boxing club podcast, the sports writer said, “It wasn’t maybe the greatest fight week ever. I think, I’ll just say, maybe with the UFC and Zuffa, there’s maybe a few growing pains when it comes to dealing with the boxing press. But, everybody was nice, and the setup in the stadium, as far as the way, for the fans they did. The whole production was amazing. And the fight hotel. I never stayed at the Font and Blue before, was a beautiful hotel. And so, there was a lot of good things about it.”
That’s definitely a solid point by Rafael. Dana White, having a media squabble at a big press conference, actually grabbed massive attention. But it has to be recognized that the entire event was big enough to make the week great. Even if not all the attention was positive, the fans definitely showed their support, making it the third-highest gate revenue event in boxing history. Which’s a fact the veteran writer also accepted.
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However, as White gets fully involved in the boxing game under the TKO banner, a lot of questions have started to arise. Especially after the UFC head honcho talked about making boxing great again with the White Contender Series model, critics have already pointed out that the model might not work. But a former UFC fighter has an answer.
Josh Thomson backs UFC CEO’s boxing plans
Dana White promised that he’d make the best boxers fight each other with his DWCS model. But Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn has criticized the model, stating, “It’s lower-level fighters and young prospects who they believe they can build into big pay-per-view stars. I don’t think it works.” Soon, a swarm of critics joined in as well. Still, some people believe this model could work.
Former UFC fighter Josh Thomson said on the Weighing In podcast, “I know that. I’m excited for how Dana gets into the boxing world. And I know there’s always talk about, ‘Oh, he has offered this pay scale for these fighters in the Dana White Contender Series.’ And Eddie Hearn going, ‘This has already been done. It doesn’t work.’ You know, it doesn’t work because you guys didn’t do it.”
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Here, Thomson took a dig at the Matchroom Boxing head for doubting Dana White and his boxing ambitions. It’s possible that by applying the DWCS model, it’s expected that TKO would build new prospects and groom champions just like they did in the UFC. Additionally, there will be a separate rankings system, projected to work similarly to the UFC.
That being said, will Dana White actually end up fulfilling his dream and take over boxing? That would be something interesting to see. Before that, how do you think the UFC CEO handled the Canelo vs. Crawford event? Let us know in the comments section below.