Dana White found more enjoyment in watching Canelo Alvarez than a UFC title fight that was right in front of him.
On Saturday night, the UFC president completes his first real foray into boxing by promoting one of the biggest fights in recent years.
White’s plans to change boxing, which have been influenced by his own experiences, will start to come into play this weekend when Canelo Alvarez faces Terence Crawford at Allegiant Stadium.
Not every fan appears to be on board with White’s plans to replicate the success that he has had in MMA in the boxing world.
While he will hope to move the sport forwards, there are times when it’s up the fights to deliver, and that certainly wasn’t the case during an event that the UFC boss was front and center for.
Dana White ‘zoned out’ of UFC 274 title fight while watching Canelo Alvarez’s last defeat
At UFC 274 in May of 2022, the promotion brought a title fight double-header to the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
While the main event of the night, where Charles Oliveira submitted Justin Gaethje in the first round, certainly delivered, the co-main event couldn’t have been any more different.
The strawweight title fight rematch between Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza was one of the most bizarre fights to have ever taken place inside the Octagon.
There was so little action, with both women combining for a total of 68 strikes landed, that it was hard to score let alone engage with.
Clearly, Dana White had this issue also, as photos taken from inside the venue showed him watching Canelo Alvarez suffer a defeat to Dmitry Bivol at the same time.
When asked about the fight and whether he thought the result was controversial in his post-fight press conference, White admitted that he struggled to keep up with it.
“It was a weird fight, it seemed like they didn’t want to engage. I think there was a total of six punches in the first round, it’s a tough one but it happens sometimes.
“I started zoning out halfway through it, so I don’t know [who won]… I don’t think anyone is clamouring for that rematch so we’ll have to think of something else.”
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This wasn’t the first time that Dana White watched Canelo Alvarez during a UFC event
The UFC has hosted shows at the same time as Canelo Alvarez fights on multiple occasions.
While this has led to Alvarez being frustrated in the past when it impacted him, Dana White clearly has no issue with watching two bouts at the same time.
In a similar case to UFC 274, White was seen watching the Mexican star face Caleb Plant during UFC 268, which he later explained in the post-fight press conference.
“I like Canelo, I watched the fight. I bet on Canelo, that’s why I watched the fight. I bet $100,000 on him to win by knockout.”
In a strange coincidence, this was also during one of Rose Namajunas’ fights, where she successfully defended her strawweight title by beating Zhang Weili.