This past weekend in Las Vegas, boxing fans filed in to watch Manny Pacquiao defeat opponent Shane Mosley, a few of those fans in attendance included UFC President Dana White and his partners the Fertitta brothers, Lorenzo and Frank.
As a combat sport, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has grown in popularity in leaps and bounds over the last decade. Boxing, once thought of as the penultimate combat sport, finds itself in competition for fan dollars when it comes to pay-per-views, but remains at the top for earnings because of TV and sponsorship deals.
Despite the obvious comparisons, and the limited sponsorship dollars, White feels that both sports can co-exist, and in an interview with MMAjunkie.com, reaffirmed his stance that he is not in direct competition with boxing.
“I think boxing and the UFC can coexist. I’m a big fight fan. When there’s a good boxing match, I want to see it… We don’t look at it like we’re in competition. People who are real fight fans are [expletive] fight fans, whether it’s MMA or it’s boxing…”
“I think we’ve gotten to a place now where we’ve gained respect from people. For instance, I bumped into (boxing writer) Bert Sugar. Bert Sugar told me, ‘I hate your sport, but I appreciate what you’ve done. You guys are incredible marketers.’ I get it. This guy is a huge boxing guy, but to get the respect from these guys? We’re in a place now where we’re a major sports league, and people respect us. Are we bigger than boxing? Are we bigger than something else? Listen, in the next 10 years, it’s common sense.
“Right now, we’re in a half-billion homes worldwide. We’ll be in over a billion homes worldwide in the next few months. What’s that going to do over the next 10 years? It’s going to be a massive, huge sport. I always talk about the troubles boxing has. Boxing has a lot of problems and a lot of trouble. But whenever there’s a big fight, and it happens, I’ll be there to watch.”