Dana White says the sport of boxing is a ‘mess’ and in ‘big trouble’

UFC president Dana White believes the sport of boxing is in big trouble as the future of Zuffa Boxing remains unknown.

It’s no secret that Dana White’s first love was boxing, but thankfully for mixed martial arts fans all around the world, he was able to land on his feet in the UFC, building a fantastic organization and product in the process alongside the Fertitta brothers, Lorenzo and Frank.

However, during a recent interview with Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole, White admitted that the future of the sport doesn’t look good.

Dana White on boxing: I don't know if it can be fixed.
Full interview here: https://t.co/FySQOsSnPe pic.twitter.com/QcdcUR2lnR

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) March 24, 2020

“It’s hard for me, I hate speaking negatively about the sport of boxing other than the fact it’s a mess – we all know it’s a mess. It needs to be fixed, if it can be fixed,” White said. “I will tell you Kevin, I told you guys that I would have a press conference last October and announce all these things. But as I dove into this thing and started to look into the sport of boxing, the economics of boxing, that sport is a mess. It’s a mess and it’s in big trouble. I don’t know. I don’t know if it can be fixed.”

The expectation for a long time has been that White would be making his way into the boxing world in the form of a new company: Zuffa Boxing. There has been a whole lot of uncertainty regarding what the ins and outs of ZB would look like, mainly due to the silence from White on the potential endeavor.

Some fans have interpreted this as meaning that White wouldn’t have quite as much control over his fighters in comparison to how things work in the UFC, but either way, it’s interesting to see his take on things as fans continue to adjust to a world without combat sports.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 3/25/2020.