Dana White revolutionizing UFC pay per view model, launching boxing organization | Adam Hill | Sports

UFC CEO Dana White has made a career out of generating money, headlines and controversy.

He’s also been able to create quite a bit of history along the way, catapulting the sport of mixed martial arts from VHS tapes in the back of the local video store and traded amongst friends hiding them from their parents to the mainstream.

And yet he may be about to begin the biggest week of his professional career.

White will usher his multibillion-dollar company into a new era as the UFC eschews the traditional pay-per-view model in favor of a streaming deal on Paramount+, starting with Saturday night’s event at T-Mobile Arena on the same week he begins a planned takeover of another sport.

The UFC deal means more affordability for longtime fans and more accessibility for new ones who may be more apt to subscribe than to purchase a pay-per-view, especially when the old deal was also through a streaming subscription with an additional pay-per-view cost on top of it. Fighters will probably also see more mainstream opportunities through all of the CBS platforms, as evidenced by the somewhat awkward appearance of Brian Ortega and Mackenzie Dern on the Golden Globes.

Lifelong passion

It just so happens that on the same weekend he takes that brand across the finish line to a future of streaming, White also will finally accomplish his longtime personal goal of launching a boxing promotion.

Zuffa Boxing, which will kick off with Friday’s card featuring Callum Walsh and Carlos Ocampo at the Meta Apex, marks a return to White’s roots.

He got his start in the boxing gyms of Boston and was starting to break in on the fringes of the sport when he took a slight detour to revolutionize the combat sports world by making the UFC a global phenomenon.

But boxing was always the mistress he longed for even while publicly bashing all of its faults at every opportunity.

White has often waxed poetic about the beauty of boxing, despite what he has seen as self-inflicted wounds from extreme mismanagement over the years that have reduced public interest in the sport to the occasional mega-event or battle between YouTube celebrities.

White thinks he can save it by focusing on delivering fights to the masses on a more regular basis and building stars, instead of what he calls the “going-out-of-business” sales the sport has become with promoters just trying to suck what they can out of every pay-per-view event.

This day hasn’t arrived without controversy. It wouldn’t be a White project without drama.

On the mixed martial arts side, questions remain about how fighters who have earned shares of pay-per-view revenue will be compensated with a streaming model. White has vowed to work it out and has an influx of $7.7 billion to make it right, but some fighters have expressed confusion about the plan.

All about White

There has been major – and warranted – pushback from the boxing world on White’s efforts to amend the Ali Act, which will clear a path for his TKO brand to bring the UFC model to the sport.

Concerns have also been raised about White’s passion for the UFC now that he also has a boxing league to build. Some recent interviews have definitely lacked his traditional passion when discussing upcoming events.

Eyebrows were further raised Friday when a hype video was posted to promote the debut of Zuffa Boxing that included an almost uncomfortable level of glazing from Max Kellerman when speaking audaciously about White’s foray into the sport.

“Boxing has lost its aura,” Kellerman proclaimed. “It’s been pushed to the margins. Why is that? Maybe because there has never been an architect. A visionary who has been able to harness its power and present it the way it should be presented.”

It was confirmation of anyone who feared the new promotion would be more about White than any of the individual boxers.

But it was also probably smart. The Paramount+ deal is going to be a massive next step for the UFC and is just one more example of the immense disruptor he has been in the sports world.

The sport of mixed martial arts has fundamentally changed and the UFC takes another huge step this week. The boxing world, for better or worse, is about to feel the full impact of what White can do when he sets his mind to something.

And this time it’s even more personal.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.