Dana White has recently taken heat because of his apparent focus on the Power Slap League over the promotion of UFC fights.
On Saturday March 11. — UFC Las Vegas was held at The Theater at Virgin Hotels rather than the UFC Apex facility because it was being used for the Power Slap season 1 finale event. While many appreciated the refreshing feel of a new venue, it was still odd to see Power Slap get the nod at the Apex over the UFC event.
While Power Slap hasn’t exactly been an instant hit in the ratings, the numbers online aren’t terrible. According to stats on Rumble, the Power Slap Finale reportedly amassed 2.1 million views. And according to the boss himself, the other social media numbers are trending in the right direction for Power Slap.
On the growth of Power Slap, Dana White commented:
“Think about this: this thing is eight weeks old. This didn’t exist 8 weeks ago. Didn’t exist! The social media channels for it didn’t exist, none of this existed. We’re over a billion views on TikTok alone. On Instagram, we did like 38.5 million views a week. And online on Rumble, the whole season did 15 million views globally…”
“These are obviously massive numbers, and it proves that this thing — like the UFC — is global… The social and streaming numbers are just f—ing nuts. The worst Power Slap post of the day did better than the best UFC post on UFC’s social. Yeah, this thing’s a f—ing monster, man.” – (Transcribed MMA Mania)
Dana White denies that he is spending too much time on Power Slap League
Despite the fact that White tweeted about the Power Slap event literally during Saturday’s UFC headliner, the boss doesn’t see this is a problem. While seated in front of a Power Slap banner at the joint Power Slap/UFC Las Vegas press conference, Dana White dismissed notions that he spends too much time on his new venture:
“Do I even really need to answer that question?” Dana White said. “I mean, come on. Anybody that wants to talk s— can come up with anything. I say this all the time: people have no idea what I really do and don’t do, and they don’t know anything about this business. Nobody. Nobody knows anything about this business. If they did, they’d be doing what we do…”
“Tonight was a sell-out over at … at, you know, the Virgin. What else would you people like me to do? If we weren’t selling tickets, weren’t putting on fights people wanted to see, sponsorship is though the f—ing roof, and the list goes on and on, maybe you’d have something… Shut the f— up and mind you business,” White concluded. “That’s what I have to say about it, now that I think about it. That’s what I’ll say.”