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Don’t tell Dana White that Power Slap isn’t a rousing success. Sure the startup pseudo sport has been dismissed as little more than brain trauma for cash by its critics and pulled minimal ratings on TBS, despite a strong lead-in from AEW wrestling. And maybe it showed little enough promise as a cable entertainment property that networks declined to pick it up after season 1 was in the books, leaving White to go pitch his latest reality-TV abomination to alt-YouTube media platform Rumble.
All that may be true, but it doesn’t mean that the whole project hasn’t still been everything that the UFC president hoped it would be. In a recent interview with Bro Bible, White gave more concrete numbers to the success of Power Slap’s debut run.
“We’ve done 1.5 billion views on TikTok alone,” White claimed, when asked about his past comments on Power Slap being “number one in all of sports.” “The average view count on TikTok for us is 11.4 million…We invested $10 million into Power Slap for season one and the first live event, and all of my investors have been paid back their money. Power Slap is making money. If you look at most of these companies, when you think of combat sports, the PFL, One FC, Bellator, and whoever else is out there, after one season of the reality show, this company is profitable.”
Neurologist calls slap fighting ‘insane’
While criticism of Power Slap has been swift and consistent ever since White & Co. first started bandying the idea about in public, the longtime MMA promoter has been bullish on the sport’s potential to be conducted safely. “We run right toward regulation,” he said in an interview with MMA Fighting, noting how many fewer blows to the head slap fighters take than boxers.
In an interview back in October of last year, however, Neurologist Dr. Nitin Sethi, poured some cold water on White’s enthusiasm, explaining that no amount of medical supervision is going to make activity like this fundamentally safer to participate in.
“We’ve spent so many years trying to educate commissions and fighters about brain damage,” Dr. Schwartz said. “And now you have this. These guys get hit in the head. You’re inflicting a concussion without allowing the combatant to in any way protect himself. And then he gets hit in the head again. Every concussion is brain damage. The first concussion is damaging. And with second impact syndrome, the second concussion can be life-threatening. It’s insane.”
Dana White claims they ‘spend the money’ to make Power Slap safe
In a recent interview with a media entertainment personality, Dana White tried to put any fears over Power Slap’s safety to rest. When asked about the talent and technique involved in the sport, he fell back to more familiar talking points—namely, dollars & cents.
“Because we spend the money to make sure that we have two healthy people in there before the fight,” White said of the technical mastery behind the talent. “But, in Slap, they take 3-5 slaps per event. Fighters in boxing take 300-400 punches a fight. It’s uneducation or pure hate.”
They train hard though
So where does all that money and healthy mindfullness go? No goddamn idea.
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