Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White isn’t sure how Showtime Boxing will be able to successfully market a bout between former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and YouTuber turned boxing sensation Jake Paul.
Following the events of UFC 263, White took part in his traditional post-pay-per-view press conference. Of course, much of the questions focused on the night’s winners and losers. Such as middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and new flyweight champion Brandon Moreno. However, the topic of former employee Woodley and Paul competing in the squared circle was brought up to the UFC boss. As well as the claims by “T-Wood’s” representatives that his payday for the August fight will be better than anything he ever received in the UFC. White had trouble believing the truth in the reports and the bankability of Woodley’s boxing debut.
Dana White on Woodley vs Paul boxing bout in August
“I’ve been hearing that bullsh*t forever,” White told the assembled press. “They’re all full of shit. What’s he making? If it’s that much money, and he’s so f*cking proud of how much it is, [then] how much is it? But that’s how you hype up a fight too. Tyron Woodley’s 40-years-old. He hasn’t won a fight in three years in something he’s actually supposed to be good at. Now he’s going to go box. How do you sell that fight?
The recent pronouncements of a “multi-million dollar payday” for the 39-year-old mixed martial arts great came via his manager Malki Kawa of First Round Management, during an interview for MMAFighting. Part of Woodley’s alleged deal includes a percentage of the PPV revenue from the fight.
In general, White seems skeptical about the reported PPV numbers for Jake Paul’s recent headlining bout against former Bellator and ONE Championship welterweight titleholder Ben Askren. That event, under the Triller Fight Club banner, allegedly earned over a million buys on FITE TV PPV. While the UFC president may not believe those stats, he does feel reports of Paul’s brother Logan and Floyd Mayweather pulling in over a million PPV buys for their exhibition bout last week does have legitimacy.
“Jake? He didn’t do a million. [Logan] and Floyd did a million,” White said. “Last time we had a press conference I told you all the Triller stuff is a bunch of bullsh*t. Those guys [Floyd vs. Paul] really did that number. That’s a real number. Jake didn’t do that. That’s a real number and good for them.”
Join the discussion on this topic…