Dana White has gone on record to say that he’s 100% pushing through with venturing into boxing. The UFC President gave an update on the said plans, noting that he plans to meet with some of the sport’s most influential personalities at the start of 2018 — well everyone except promoters Oscar De La Hoya and Bob Arum.
“I don’t need them. Can’t work with them,” White said (HT: MMA Fighting). “De La Hoya hates Arum and Arum hates De La Hoya. They’re exactly alike. Both of those guys are carbon copies of each other.
“Right now, I have two different plans,” said White. “I have a Plan A and a Plan B. And I’m not sure which I’m gonna go with. But I’m gonna sit down, I’m gonna talk to everybody in the industry. They all want to come out here, they all want to talk. Fighters want to come out here and talk. So many people. So I’m gonna take like a month at the beginning of the year and just focus on this thing and see what we’re gonna do.”
White made it clear that the venture to Boxing will still be under the WME-IMG umbrella, and they are looking to have stacked cards that build new stars and focus on younger talent.
One of the athletes the UFC President is interested in working with is current heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Dana White says he would like to work with Anthony Joshua in the boxing world. “In my opinion, right now, he’s the most marketable guy in boxing.”
— Adam Hill (@AdamHillLVRJ) November 28, 2017
White has also been complimentary of Joshua in the past, congratulating him after his win over Wladimir Klitschko, and saying boxing may no longer be dying now that they have an exciting heavyweight champion again.
It would be interesting to see how that conversation would play out, as Joshua made around $13.1 million on his last title defense, and $22 million ($18.5M purse, $3.5M sponsors) for his win over Klistchko.
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