Dana White was seated ringside for his first major foray into boxing this past weekend.
White has been critical of boxing for some time, believing that there are several major mistakes that the top promotions consistently make.
The UFC president is now looking to make some big changes in the sport via Zuffa Boxing, which is set to launch next year.
His move into boxing started on Saturday night in Las Vegas, with Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford taking place at Allegiant Stadium.
The aftermath of the event saw White receive some criticism for not fixing one of the issues with the sport that he has spoken out against the most.
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Jon Anik believes that Dana White would have changed the pacing if he could have
For a long time, boxing fans have complained about the length of events and the amount of time it takes between each bout on the card.
Dana White criticized this ahead of September 13, jokingly remarking that there’s now a podcast before and after anything happened inside the ring.
While fans seem to be skeptical about White’s boxing plans, it does seem likely that he will try to make the sport more similar to the UFC in terms of the pacing of a live event.
However, this certainly wasn’t the case in Las Vegas on Saturday where there were a lot of complaints about how late the main event got underway.
When reviewing the event on the latest episode of The Anik & Florian podcast, MMA coach Ray Longo joked that he was “delirious” by the time the first bell rang due to the “unacceptable” pacing.
Jon Anik, who temporarily stepped away from the UFC’s commentary booth to lead the Netflix broadcast, agreed with this statement, adding that he believes White would have changed this if he was in a position to do so.
“We should just sort of talk about that for a second if we could… I would have just been fighting it so hard as a boxing fan at 12:39 a.m. Eastern when Canelo’s starting to walk or whatever it was. It’s really difficult. I know you’re catering to a lot of different masses and audiences, Ray, but that’s a big deal, right? Pacing is a big deal and you know that if Dana White had his [say], he would do something about it.”
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Jon Anik was also confused by another aspect of the pacing for Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford
Another aspect of the pacing that Jon Anik didn’t believe felt right on Saturday night was to do with the co-main event.
The UFC commentator acknowledged that the co-main event between Callum Walsh and Fernando Vargas Jr. wasn’t exactly a barnburner.
He also recognized that from a broadcast point of view, there was a lot that needed to be done between the end of this bout and the start of the main event.
All of that being said, Anik was left a little confused with the fact that for how long the event was, Walsh didn’t receive a post-fight interview despite the drawn-out pacing.
“I get it, but if we’re going to be there for 12 hours, I feel like Callum should get a microphone.”