Dana White is looking forward to the future of boxing.
UFC Saudi Arabia has come and gone and kickstarted the new partnership between the promotion and the country. Therefore, fight fans can expect bigger and better things from future events overseas.
Before UFC and Saudi Arabia joined forces, Chairman of General Entertainment, Turki Alashikh, started getting into the boxing world, making some of the biggest match ups possible. After putting on their first event together, White has nothing but good things to say about Turki and is excited about boxing’s future with this involvement.
“I like him. The guy has a vision for a sport that is completely f*cked up,” White told The Mac Life. “If you look at what he’s been able to do in a short amount of time, boxing is so broken and so f*cked up that it takes a guy with that kind of money and that kind of power to make these things happen. So, I think it’s gonna be fascinating to see what he accomplishes over the next several years.
“You know me, I don’t kiss anybody’s ass for any f*cking reasons whatsoever,” he continued. “If I didn’t feel that way or if I didn’t have this feeling about him, I would let you know and I would be all out on it, but I like this guy. I respect him. I like what he has already done and I am actually looking forward to seeing what he is gonna do in the future. He is dealing with a sh*t show of unbelievable proportions, and I like the way he’s handling it.”
White has never been shy to express his feelings on boxing and the promoters involved. Oscar De La Hoya might be the most notorious to catch critique from White, but Bob Arum isn’t safe either. Critical of White’s dealings in the past, Arum caught some strays from UFC’s CEO when compared to Saudi’s leading man.
“It’s gonna take a guy like Sheikh Turki to fix it. He’s making the fights that nobody can make, and it was a fun fight. It was a good fight,” White said of boxing and the recent Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk match (watch highlights).
“In COVID, Bob Arum comes out and says, ‘This guy, he’s a dumb guy, he’s f*cking this and that and everything else,’ look at how long Arum’s been in the game, right? Guy’s in his f*cking 90s, I respect the fact that he’s still — I mean, that guy flew out to Saudi Arabia, went to England, did all this sh*t, gotta respect that part of his game. But he thinks he’s so f*cking smart. He thinks he’s so f*cking intelligent. He’s literally done nothing. He’s made a living for himself on the boxing game, but at the end of the day, what does he have? He has f*ckin’ nothing. He’s created nothing. Always just stripping money, never invested back into the f*cking sport. You could have f*cking fixed it. You had no f*cking vision for the sport. You had nothing. You’re not as smart as you think you are, Bob Arum.”