Jump to
UFC president Dana White is all about social media. Especially when it comes to teaming up with influencers and to promoting his latest combat sports business venture—Power Slap. Lately, that means he’s been trumpeting the success of his slap fight promotion, calling it “number one in all of sports” even as it lost its cable deal with TBS, seemingly due to generally poor ratings.
The big reason White could make that claim? The success Power Slap has had making viral content for social media platform TikTok. Videos posted to the account regularly get hundreds of thousands of views, with some even in the millions. It’s not clear yet that that social media success translates into monetary rewards, but in a recent conversation with social media influencers the Nelk Boys, White was quick to use it as a sign that he knows how to reach the younger generation.
Dana White blasts NHL for turning down the Nelk Boys
During White’s recent trip to Vancouver for UFC 289, the UFC boss spent some time hanging out with the Nelk Boys, appearing on their Full Send podcast. At some point during their time together, host Kyle Forgeard revealed that the NHL recently slammed the door on having anything to do with the Nelk Boys brand. “If Nelk Boys is involved, we don’t want anything to do with it,” Forgeard told White, recounting the NHL’s message to them.
White was quick to leap to Forgeard’s defense, pointing to the NHL’s reaction as a sign of how out of touch they are, unlike Power Slap.
“F-ck ’em.” White stated. “They’re all old, dumb f-cking people that have no idea what’s going on. They have no idea where this younger generation is, how you reach them, any of that shit.
“Total video views for the NHL? The middle of their conference finals, they did 25 million video views. Power Slap did 90 million.
“So, all these people that are talking shit out there,” White continued. “You know, it’s all old, dumb f-cking journalists. NHL don’t want the Nelk Boys, no problem, I got ’em.”
Dana White is a big supporter of Forgeard
How White got from NHL brass to journalists is anybody’s guess, but the UFC president is a longtime friend and supporter of the the Nelk Boys brand. Back in 2022, a video made the rounds of White gifting Forgeard $250,000 as a birthday present. In another recent video on their TikTok page, Forgeard talked about going to the casino with White and being handed $30,000 in chips to keep playing when he started losing money.
Getting back to White’s point about the NHL though, it is worth noting that the league is coming off one of it’s worst viewed finals in recent history. That’s after a significant boost in ratings throughout the season and playoffs, however, with the NHL reporting that televised games on ABC saw a 19% increase from the previous year. The low finals ratings likely have more to do with the fact that the two finals teams based in Las Vegas and Sunrise, FL don’t exactly represent cities known for their serious hockey fandom.
Unlike Power Slap, the NHL will be back on TV next year, however, so at least it’s got that going for it.
About the author
