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The UFC’s big International Fight week PPV takes place this Saturday, on July 8th, in Las Vegas, NV. The card is set to be headlined by a top flight featherweight bout between champ Alexander Volkanovski and interim title holder Yair Rodriguez. In the co-main event, flyweight king Brandon Moreno will defend his crown against former foe Alexandre Pantoja.
Before getting a taste of the top flight MMA action, however, Dana White hoped to give fans a little something different from his pet project, Power Slap.
UFC fans can certainly get enough of Power Slap
UFC CEO Dana White has been two-timing his main job all year by branching out with his new Power Slap promotion. There has been a fair amount of controversy and pushback from fans and media, especially after White was caught on video engaging in a brutal slap fight with his wife at the beginning of the year.
So when it was first reported by MMAJA journalist of the year Amy Kaplan that today’s UFC 290 weigh-in would include a PowerSlap match, the fan response was immediate…and not positive.
Amy Kaplan: I think it’s smart TBH. Great way to hook people into it. Power Slap is actually really fun.”
Aych: “What are your thoughts on the UFC having a powerslap promo as their pinned tweet during International Fight week?”
Amy Kaplan: “my thoughts are fans pay way to much attention to social media and should just relax. No one is forcing you to watch or consume anything”
Talkin’ MMA: “that’s Not the problem people have. The problem is when you promote it on all of the UFC’s platforms as well, even though it’s a separate entity. So in that case it is certainly being forced down people’s throats.”
Amy Kaplan: “Just keep scrolling. It’s really not that big of a deal.”
The Moon’s Sun: “It’s literally DURING the weigh in of a huge UFC event. It’s a pretty big deal that the UFC is shamelessly pushing a barbaric pseudo sport in the middle of UFC content and all over their socials because it’s Dana’s pet project and it’s a disaster.”
Here’s the Power Slap match in question
Don’t want anyone to accuse Bloody Elbow of not being fair to Dana White.
Will Power Slap be sanctioned in more states?
When Power Slap launched earlier this year, the Nevada Athletic Commission went out on a limb and sanctioned the “sport.” Dana White immediately claimed they would only be the first of many athletic commissions to green-light the new sport.
So far that hasn’t panned out. Bloody Elbow heard from 21 state commissions who all denied that they had or planned to sanction slap fighting. White has also claimed that Power Slap is the #1 sport in the world on social media and that it totally is making a LOT of money.
Dana White takes all of this very personally
“Everything that’s negative that’s being said about it (Power Slap) it is an attack on me,” White recently said on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast. “It’s me that these guys are attacking—it’s not the actual slapping. The media, it’s all about me. Okay? They want to f*ck me. That’s why they’re saying what they’re saying about Slap.”
Here’s what New York Times columnist Kurt Streeter had to say on the subject:
“What a world. What a disgrace.
“Shame on the Nevada Athletic Commission, which sanctioned slap fighting late last year, giving it an air of official blessing.
“TBS and its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, deserve scorn as well. They provide a glossy, highly produced platform for slap fighting, disregarding both the human toll and the way the fights undercut the broader push for athlete safety.
“White is a multimillionaire who has wielded his power to keep people defenseless. Under his leadership, he has balked at U.F.C. fighters’ pleas for better pay. He also suffered no repercussions for publicly slapping his wife in January.
“Of course, he’s a Svengali for slap fighting. But there is no chance he would ever put himself in the dangerous, powerless position he’s pushing on others. Instead, he will watch from the sideline, gleeful.”
Seems like Dana has found a subject on which a lot of UFC fans agree with The New York Times.
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