Dana White may be ready to finally jump headfirst into the world of professional boxing, but his business daddy feels it necessary to pump the brakes until the right opportunity comes along.
After years of teasing his entry into yet another combat sport, White announced that he was finally ready to pull the trigger during a Q&A session before Callum Walsh’s boxing match against Przemyslaw Runowski in Dulin.
“If you know anything about me and you go back and look at anything that I’ve ever said, I never say anything that I don’t do — ever,” White said. “I’ve never said (something I don’t do), and we’ve been kicking the whole boxing thing around for a long time. You’ve never heard me commit and say, ‘I’m in.’ I’m in.”
White’s comments earned widespread praise from people within the industry, including legendary pugilist ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson and Matchroom Sports promoter Eddie Hearn.
However, White’s boxing dreams may not come true for quite some time according to Mark Shapiro — the President of Endeavor and Chief Operating Officer of the UFC’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings.
“First of all, some off the cuff comments from Dana White do not translate into a strategy that we’re communicating to the street,” Shapiro said during a quarterly earnings call on Wednesday. “Dana says a lot of things and has a lot of passions and that’s why we love him. He’s also the best promoter the sport of MMA and frankly if it was boxing has or will ever see.
“What I can tell you is boxing at its best is confused and fragmented. At its worst, it’s broken. We think the sport presents an interesting growth opportunity for us. Dana White, and I should mention [WWE president] Nick Khan, have deep expertise and longstanding relationships in what they call the sweet science, otherwise known as boxing. If we were to get involved in boxing, we would expect to do so in an organic way, not [mergers and acquisitions] way. So i.e. we’re not writing a check. If we launched the vertical at any time, we kind of see it as doing it with a partner that would fund it and pay us to operate” (h/t MMA Fighting).
TKO Group in no rush to leap into the boxing ring with Dana White
Perhaps their stance will change in the future, but for now, it sounds like TKO Group is willing to play the wait-and-see game with boxing. Until then, the company will continue to focus on its MMA and sports entertainment endeavors with the UFC and World Wrestling Entertainment.
“Nothing to announce today but this is one area we’re going to continue to explore,” Shapiro said. “We’ve talked about a dearth of leagues that are out there. Obviously, we’re acquiring [Professional Bull Riders], there’s not much else. We don’t necessarily need to add anything to our model but boxing is ripe for a fix.
“We’re blessed to have two experts in the field and if an opportunity presents itself or we can chase one down that does not put much risk or any risk for that matter on us financially, then we’re going to pursue it. In terms of models and leagues and how we’d structure it, etc, etc, that’s way down the road. Once we have something — if we have something — you’ll be the first to know.”
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