For years, we have heard UFC president Dana White speak openly about his love-hate relationship with the sport of boxing. After a controversial ending to a bout between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Victor Ortiz, White did anything but bite his lip about a boxing event that likely stole viewers from his promotion’s UFC Fight Night 25.
After Mayweather had gotten off to a strong start in the first three rounds of the boxing match, Ortiz came out aggressive in the fourth round. At one point, Ortiz let his emotions get the best of him and aimed what appeared to be an intentional headbutt at Mayweather.
This prompted referee Joe Cortez to deduct a point from Ortiz. When Cortez restarted the fight, Ortiz offered a sign of apology to Mayweather, who took advantage of Ortiz’s lack of defense by landing two legal, but classless punches.
The second punch dropped Ortiz to the canvas. Cortez, who had looked away and missed what had happened, counted Ortiz out and awarded Mayweather the victory. While this wasn’t the ending that viewers who payed a pocketful of money were looking for, there was nothing that could be done. Although he added to his infamy, Mayweather defeated Ortiz within the rules.
Shortly after the result went final, White made a clear point to blame Cortez for the disappointing ending to the bout.
“Was that NUTS or what!?!? Dirty from both fighters,” White said on his Twitter account, “and the most HORRIBLE refereeing I have EVER seen in boxing or anywhere else!”
“Ref never sent a fighter to a neutral corner to take a point,” White continued. “Especially after a intentional head butt! That’s why u have a ref!!!!”
White wasn’t the only member of the UFC brass to have his opinion heard, though. UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta also had some choice words about the ending of the HBO broadcast. The business man that he is, Fertitta made sure to spin the incident into a promotion for the UFC’s next event.
Also speaking on his Twitter account, Fertitta said, “And you really paid 70 bucks for that? September 24th see a real fight jones vs rampage!!!!!!!!!!”
As MMA continues its ascension into the mainstream, boxing appears to be circling the drain. Of course, the Mayweathers and Manny Pacquiaos of boxing will still crush UFC headliners in terms of pay-per-view buys, but ridiculous episodes like this are the reason boxing is not thriving as MMA has in recent years.
White has continually called himself a fan of the sport of boxing. However, if boxing keeps giving the UFC president ammo to work with, White won’t hesitate to bury boxing and reap the benefits in the form of boxing fans making the transition to MMA in hopes that it won’t fail them as boxing has.
Sean Smith is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. Sean has also had his work featured on UFC.com, LowKick.com, and TheMMACorner.com. For the latest insight and updates on everything MMA, you can follow Sean on Twitter @SeanSmithMMA.
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