It seemed like the world was watching Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul engage in an eight round boxing match on Sunday night but don’t count UFC president Dana White among them.
While he’s been a boxing advocate for most of his life, White has routinely bashed the current trend in the sport where some of the biggest fights have included YouTube celebrities like Logan and Jake Paul.
Ever since the siblings from Ohio became legitimate combat sports superstars, White has never held his tongue with his opinion on them while constantly adding that he would have no interest in promoting either of the Paul brothers in the UFC.
It’s safe to say the Mayweather vs. Paul exhibition didn’t change his mind.
“That wasn’t a f*cking boxing match,” White told UFC Arabia on Monday. “Like I said before, there’s always going to be a market for that kind of stuff. There’s always going to be people that are willing to put down $50 to watch that kind of stuff. That’s so far away [from what we do].
“Think about this — imagine if Kim Kardashian wanted to fight Amanda Nunes. How big do you think that fight would be? It would be huge. It would be the biggest [event] but give me a f*cking break.”
Beyond the sideshow atmosphere that surrounded a bout pitting one of the greatest boxers of all time against a social influencer with an 0-1 professional record, White says the actual event was ultimately the same letdown as many of boxing’s biggest fights.
That’s why he’s worked tirelessly to separate the UFC from boxing in that regard as White hopes to give the fans a good show no matter who’s competing on that particular night.
“It’s exactly what boxing has always been,” White said. “You create this energy around a fight where you’re like ‘oh this [is exciting]’ and then you watch it and then you turn the TV off and go ‘I just wasted another evening, I should have went out and did something else.’ I don’t ever want people feeling like that when they turn the TV off watching some of our fights.
“You’re going to have the fans, you’ll have a card one night and they’ll be like ‘this card, blah, blah, blah.’ Then you watch the card and the card is unbelievable. You get at least two, three or four great fights that probably didn’t expect. Then when you turn the TV off, you’re glad you watched it. That’s the product that I sell. That’s what I’m into.”
As much as White isn’t interested in promoting fighters like Paul much less the kind of exhibition that saw him clashing with Mayweather on Sunday night, he won’t begrudge them for putting an event that some people will pay to see.
“I’m not trying to sh*t on these other guys,” White said. “Listen, if you’ve got people that are stupid enough to spend that kind of money, you deserve to take those dummies’ money. They deserve it.
“The guys who went out and fought and got you to pay $50, they deserve your money. You’re stupid.”