Dana White has a proven track record of bringing a sport out of its infancy and turning it into one of the biggest in the world and he is hopeful of emulating that with Power Slap.
After experiencing so much success with the UFC despite their early days of consistent adversity, UFC boss, Dana White started his own Slap Fighting promotion, Power Slap.
Ever since, White has several times stated that he believes Power Slap will become a bigger promotion than the UFC, which has resulted in raised eyebrows throughout the MMA world.
Although Power Slap has garnered a bad reputation with some of the UFC’s biggest stars such as Jon Jones, who believes ‘it’s a wild sport’, and Alex Pereira who was unimpressed when he attended an event, it is undoubtedly popular amongst the internet influencer group.
Dana White reveals he paid Slap Fighting star $25,000 and 3 Goats
Prior to getting involved in the Slap Fighting business, White recalled being drawn to the sport by Russian superstar, Vasilly Kamotskiy, also known as ‘Dumpling’.
When the UFC mogul started Power Slap, he knew he needed to sign ‘Dumpling’ to the roster, and recalled the first paycheck that the Russian demanded.
“What’s crazy is, two nights ago, we did the event here (in Saudi Arabia) and the guy who won the world title was the guy that got me into it,” White explained in an interview with Tucker Carlson.
Initially, as they did with the UFC, Power Slap struggled to be approved by commissions in America, however, following the early success, that is no longer an issue and Power Slap has even been taken global with an event in Saudi Arabia this past week.
“When I started watching this stuff a few years ago this guy named ‘Dumpling’, out of Siberia Russia (made me aware). I’m not kidding you, when we first paid him, I think he wanted $25,000 and three Goats.
“He got $25,000 and three Goats. ‘Dumpling’ the guy from Siberia who got me into this became a world champion here in Saudi Arabia,” he continued.
Can Power Slap actually surpass the UFC?
Although the extremely successful entrepreneur expects that Power Slap will surpass the UFC in success and popularity, that seems extremely unlikely.
The UFC has seen tremendous growth over the past few years and last year, they continuously broke their own records and increased their popularity in the process.
Despite the fact that Power Slap is garnering huge views on social media, it is seemingly not a sport that transfers very well as a long-form product. However, with White clearly optimistic about the sport, it will be interesting what he comes up with.