Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White seems to be completely over the idea of getting involved in the sport of boxing.
Before UFC was sold to its current parent company WME-IMG, it was under Zuffa LLC and the Fertitta brothers, who White still is close friends with to this day. After their departure from the mixed martial arts (MMA) world, the idea of “Zuffa Boxing” was kicked around to the point where White was even seen wearing t-shirts with the name on them.
Things never got off the ground and in 2022, it’s likely they never will.
“Every time I try to think about doing something with boxing, I go, ‘Why would I want to do this to myself?’” White said on Blockasset’s BLOCK Party. “You know what I mean? Why would I even want to dive into this nightmare? That’s why I haven’t really done anything. It’s a broken business that is an absolute nightmare to try to fix.”
The closest White has gotten to his boxing involvement in recent years comes in relation to the big crossover spectacle that was Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor in 2017. Ending with a 50th career Mayweather victory after scoring a 10th-round technical knockout (watch highlights), White has since kept his distance and been vocal about his lack of interest in aiding other champions of his in their hopes to try the same.
Among the biggest names looking to test themselves in the squared circle are the Heavyweight and Welterweight champions, Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman. Unfortunately for them, White has continued to show disinterest whenever the ideas are brought up, calling the matchups with Tyson Fury and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez “silly” and sharing the big differences between all and Mayweather vs. McGregor.