Dana White’s plans to “fix” boxing are finally starting to take shape.
For years, White has declared that boxing is broken, saying he intended to swoop in and save the sweet science from itself, only to pull back on his own attempts because the sport was “too broken.” But a renewed interest in moving into the boxing space through TKO and his association with Turki Alalshikh has White now firmly invested
in moving forward with Zuffa Boxing .
It all starts this weekend, as White helps promote the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford superfight, taking place on Saturday and broadcast live on Netflix, and after that, White promises a full-court press come next year, with his own boxing version of Contender Series that serves as a feeder system to the bigger boxing promotion of Turki Alalshikh.
“Basically, in 2026, I’m going to start my show, and what I’m going to do is basically like Contender Series,” White told Vegas PBS. “The best will fight the best, undefeated guys will fight undefeated guys, and what you will do is you will care about the first fight of the night, and not just the main event. So I will build stars, put on great fights, and then these guys will graduate and fight with Sheik Turki.”
For White, the ultimate goal is to turn boxing into something akin to the UFC: a unified combat sports league.
“What we did with the UFC is turn the UFC into an NFL, an NBA,” White said. “There’s a league, you reinvest into the sport, and other people want to invest in the sport, whether it’s sponsors or any of these financial firms, whatever it may be. That’s what needs to be done with boxing, too, and that’s what I’m going to attempt to do.
“Listen, there’s no ego or arrogance when I talk about getting into boxing and trying to ‘fix it.’ This is a busted sport.”
Whether White will succeed is anyone’s guess. One of the biggest blockers to White’s move into boxing has been the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, which regulates promoters from certain anti-competitive business practices, key among them, allowing promoters to control title and rankings and limit financial transparency. The UFC and parent company TKO are requesting an amendment, dubbed the “Ali Revival Act,” which rolls back some of these regulations. That initiative suffered a blow on Tuesday when the California State Athletic Commission withdrew its planned support of the bill following massive backlash during a public meeting on the matter.
If the bill ultimately does not pass, White may find it more difficult to compete against more firmly entrenched boxing promoters like Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren, but the UFC CEO says he’s prepared to do just that over the next few years.
“Right now we probably have between 60 and 70 fighters under contract,” White said. “I think that the great thing about it is there’s a lot of options. Eddie Hearn is a great promoter. He’s very successful and, in my opinion, he’s a good guy. I like him very much. You’ve got Frank Warren out in the UK, who is very successful and does well. There’s options, and we’re all going to have to compete, and we’re all going to have to try to be better than the other guy to get the best talent. …
“I compete with the NFL, I compete with the NBA, I compete with big movie studios. Whatever takes your attention on Saturday night is my competition. So, as I get into boxing, it’s a totally different world from MMA. I’ve been doing this for 25 years. 26 is going to be my first year in [boxing], so I will definitely be competing with the Eddie Hearns and the Frank Warrens of the world, but I look forward to it.”
