Dana White insists that he "doesn't care" about Tyson Fury's controversial match-up with Derek Chisora in London next month.
The UFC president is known to be a massive boxing fan, but has always had issues with the way the sport is run at the top, particularly with regards to matchmaking at the highest level. He was annoyed to see Terrence Crawford and Errol Spence being unable to make a fight happen, but has generally taken less of an interest in the sport in recent years.
White previously intimated that he may start his own promotion called Zuffa Boxing, but has been unable as yet to get the idea off the ground. However, he assured reporters at tonight's UFC 281 press conference that the idea is not completely dead, it simply hasn't become a reality to this point.
"I don't care," White told Mirror Fighting of Fury's decision to face Chisora at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in December instead of facing a top contender. "That's not my world, I was just using [Spence and Crawford] as an example of making the fights that should be made and not avoiding certain fights, we just don't do that here - it's just not my world, what they're doing has nothing to do with me, it doesn't change my life whatsoever."
The UFC boss has often declared that watching boxing feels like a 'going out of business sale', and he reiterated that sentiment when discussing the sport with media members in New York. His promotion has a monopoly on the top fighters in MMA, meaning that he rarely has problems getting the biggest fights together.
Just last night, one of his most marketable stars Israel Adesanya was knocked out in the main event of UFC 281 by Alex Pereira to lose his middleweight title. It was his third fight of 2022 against a legitimate top contender after having previously moved up to light-heavyweight in an effort to become a two-division champion.
"I think that's what makes this sport so great," White explained. "I don't mean to s*** on boxing but look at what's going on with the Crawford fight. The fight isn't being made that should be made... One of the things I think boxing did wrong was they got to a point where it became a 'going out of business sale'.
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"Every time they put on a fight they're just trying to grab as much money as they can possibly grab and run. We built a brand, built a sport and when you show up here these tickets are expensive. Plane tickets are expensive, hotel rooms are expensive, it's not cheap to come to these type of things and you should get your money's worth.
"The other thing is pay-per-view, which isn't cheap any more either. Every time I would turn off the TV when I watched boxing I would be like 'God damn it, they got me again!' I don't ever want people to turn the TV off and feel that way about our product so we stack it from tip to bottom.
"I say this all the time but what I sell is 'holy s*** moments', so I want you to have three or four 'holy s***' moments throughout the night whether you're here live or at home and that's what we always set out to do."
