In the latest episode of Frank Warren’s Heavyweight Podcast, UFC President Dana White has launched into a tirade about the state of boxing and declared: “The sport is a sh*tshow!”
Both promoters agreed that boxing needs to take the UFC’s lead in matching the best fighters against one another more often, with hall-of-fame promoter Frank Warren hailing Wilder vs Fury and, the now postponed, Dubois vs Joyce as examples of how he tries to do just that.
White, however, bemoaned the number of people involved in putting Wilder/Fury together and claimed “that fight should have been in England.”
He added: “Wilder vs Fury should have been in the UK. I think you’d have done 100,000 people at Wembley or one of those big stadiums.”
White has been rumored for some time to be readying a move into boxing under the ‘Zuffa Boxing’ umbrella but seemed to distance himself from any such move.
“Instead of diving in head first, I’ve been taking my time and it seems the more the sport continues to go on, the more f*cked up it becomes!”
“I thought I knew, but you don’t really know until you’re in how f*cked up the sport really is. The sport is a sh*tshow.”
He added: “It’s hard to articulate to you how messed up this thing really is.”
Frank Warren launched a full-throated defense of boxing, though, and said: “I’ve been doing this a long time… time and time again events generate record revenues, boxers are some of the highest-paid athletes in the world.”
Frank also backed the success of Wilder vs Fury as an event and said it had a “real feelgood factor for British boxing.”
He added: “It was great working with Top Rank, Al Haymon’s company (PBC) and MTK in getting the whole thing together and I’m looking forward to working with them in the future.”
The two promoters, who are friends in real life, enjoyed a wide-ranging chat that spanned topics as diverse as President Trump, Nelson Mandela, Mike Tyson, UFC 249 and the effect of the current coronavirus on event promotion.
Both promoters agreed that they were eager to get moving again with shows, as and when they were given the all-clear.
Warren said: “The fighters… want to fight and the public want to be entertained.”
He added: “But obviously It would be great to get something together!”
I haven’t listened to this but Warren is literally the worst high profile promoter for matchmaking. All of his fighters fight endless mismatches. He can jerk off to being associated (loosely) with Wilder Fury but he was openly against the fight happening first time. Tyson talked him into it.
UFC AND MMA SUCK! WHAT BOXING SKILLS DO THEY HAVE? NONE! IT’S A STREET FIGHT!
True but they don’t have seventeen weight divisions, and people know who the champions are.
Michael St. John. Very true, but that is what separates boxing and the ability to build and establish urself as a Contender. Yes, i agree, way to many division belts, but each fighter has the ability to establish themselves individually vs 1 guy controlling the whole platform of who gets the shot and what lives will be changed by that decision.
No they have like 4 divisions and they all keep fighting each other over and over!
I personally think in this day and age where folks want a higher level of excitement and the best bang for the buck, it would not hurt for some boxing promoters to be more generous with better match ups. The BS of the money train for multiple tune ups and easy semi-predictable outcomes does get old after a while. Not every fight has to be a prize fight, but survival in this day and age of entertainment takes a lot more creativity and viewers need the excitement at a fair price.
HBO put a dent in the boxing world when they shut the sport down on their network. Sad, but true. Now, it is a crap shoot tuning into several networks and mini-fees just to watch decent fights. Boxing is not what it used to be, but I guess we all adapt.
Maybe the best fights were in the 50’s and 60’s and on free tv, but you had to watch on a tiny screen with poor sound and picture. Technology so much better today, but the actual fights not so much.
Dana white is a clown who embarrassingly underpays the fighters at UFC.
Dana has a nice racket going on by under paying them. We all know people who want to fight in the UFC, and would do it for free. Thats what Dana banks on, that many people will do it because they LOVE it. Average boxer makes way more than the average UFC fighter. Other than the champs, the average fighter likely loses money by the time they pay for training, staff, etc and lucky to fight 2x a year.
If someone doesnt like another sport… then dont have to watch it. Why would they spend so much energy trying to discredit it?
Al, agreed brutha..
Dana is jus pissed cuz he has no say or control of the boxing world. Hes used to calling all the shots, where in the boxing world, hes jus another small fish in a big pond. He got a small taste with mayweather and he know thinks he knows the game. Hes a joke
Boxing is a whole different world. Dana and UFC is his and ONE company. Boxing is many different companies. Dana can tell his fighters what to do, or he will release them. Boxing, a promoter only has control of his stable. The PBC somewhat tried to copy the UFC by having its fighters mostly fight within the company. They went thru alot of sponsors money doing it, but after they used up most of it, they don’t have alot of cards like when they started out. Heyman spent most of the money already.
And yet they are considering coming over to boxing. Fuck Dana White!
Published Feb 13, 2020
This statistic shows the number of boxers in the United States from 2006 to 2017. In 2017, the number of participants in boxing amounted to approximately 6.53 million. In 2006, the total number of boxers was 2.2 million. This growth continued into 2019 where, for the first time in history the total number of boxers exceeded 7 million.
What is the source of these statistics? Does the number include amateur boxers? Are we talking simply the athletes or does the figure include promoters, managers, trainers, agents, commissioners, referees, judges, etc.? I never have seen a number this high pertaining to the entire world (let alone the USA) at a time when boxing was considered a major sport.
numbers like that gotta be counting aerobic boxercise people, and any MMA fighter who does boxing training on the side.
Boy, that’s a lot CT Scans of the head to rule out cranial bleeds after a fight. Imagine the payouts by the insurance comanies! $millions!
It’s usually the same thing with boxing these days, protected young prospect against a nobody or a name fighter who was in their prime 10 years ago (Vergil Ortiz, Garcia, Canelo. Etc). It’s rare you get a match up anymore where it’s even close to an even fight and then you get an undercard full of 100 pound fighters pillowfists for a boring 12 rounds. I did really enjoy the full card of Joshua vs Ruiz 2, they should learn from that and go from there on how to put on events
Sorry Dana but you don’t put the best against the best either. You wait just like boxing does but you do a great job at convincing people the cards are great. Why would we praise a conor return when Donald got smashed two fights in a row prior to getting smashed by Conor. Why Francis hasn’t fought for the title again is beyond me.
It feels like Usyk is (was recently) the only proper champion out there. Would like to see a proper heavyweight champion as well. And other weight classes. Or something like the olympics, but for professional boxers just spread over a longer period and fights taking place in different countries to get to a single champion in each weight class.
Usyk was proper at cruiser, but I question his longevity as a heavyweight. Bigger boys can bang now and some can even box well at heavyweight! Usyk needs to take baby steps in heavyweight or he could thrown off the side lines. My 2 cents…
Boxing is a sh*tshow!
We just love the sport so much we put up with the abuse and corruption. I bet if you took time to actually look into the business you would be shocked. I believe him. Don King is a saint compared to the current bunch cronies.
LOL, love the comment…Ever so true!
Nobody cares what u think Dana. U n ur bitch of a girlfriend McGregor shld stick with UFC and stop trying to take on a challenge u guys are not good at. Dana is jus pissed cuz no boxing promoter will bow down to him like the UFC world does for him. This is boxing dude. Yes, there are politics behind these fights, but in any case, promoters put on the shows for us to watch. AND fighters get paid well.. in this sport, the fighters control their destiny unlike UFC where Dana controls their destiny.
UFC is a shit show and has been losing $$$ for years. Dana White is just trying to make people think UFC is the top dog well Dana lets see you pay a fighter a 100 million for one fight
Lets see.
Crawford vs Pacquia
Crawford vs Spence
Crawford vs….anybody?
Beterbiev vs Bivol
Davis vs Lomachenko
Charlo vs Canelo
Danny Garcia vs Mikey Garcia
Somebody PLEASE fight somebody!!!
I could go on forever. 100 matchups but none ever made. 4 ‘champions’ that never fight the other sanctioning body ‘champions’ this way in every division, the top 4 guys never compete. Boxing is the worst shit ever, and this is from a lifelong boxing fan. Dana White is right!
Chalf, you do have a valid point to some extent. The real-good fights are blocked by hidden agendas, cash under the table, legal jargon, and greed. Impatient fans could divert away from the sport. Who knows…..
Dana White, the man who makes pro fighters the equivalent of Walmart employees. Now the Jones is done, start taking English classes now to learn to pronounce the name of the guys who win their belts and jump dudes for 5 rounds