Dana White explains how he would ‘rebuild’ boxing business

UFC President Dana White has long teased a move into the boxing business, and with the unveiling of the new UFC Apex facility, and rumors that UFC parent company Endeavor could potentially purchase Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), that move is looking more imminent than ever.

If White does jump into the boxing industry, he is confident he can breathe new life into the sport, which he believes is hindered by a broken business model.

He believes the sport could benefit from more small-scale events, much like the UFC Fight Night cards we’re accustomed to, that are less reliant on mega-stars like Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

.@DanaWhite believes boxing could do so much better, says the current business model is "broken."

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— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) June 19, 2019

“If you look at the way that it was in the 80s, 90s, even the early 2000s, you had [a few] guys that were [making money]. You had Floyd [Mayweather], you had [Manny] Pacquiao, [Oscar] Del La Hoya, maybe a couple other guys,” Dana White said Tuesday at the new Apex facility (via MMA Fighting). “But boxing as a whole, you’re talking about tons of fighters that weren’t making big money and weren’t in big fights. I think that the sport could be so much more.

“If you look at what [the UFC has] built over the last 20 years, and our events, and how many events we’re doing — we’re doing 42 events a year. Every time you go to one of our events, they’re either sold out or they break the record for ticket sales. This year we’re going to break the record for ticket sales, ever, in UFC history. There are more tickets being sold this year than ever before in the history of the company. We continue to put on these fights, people come and see them. They’re on TV, free, they’re on ESPN, which everybody has. And we’re still doing million-dollar gates on these things without the Mayweathers and those types of fights.

“You could build a business [like that] with boxing — build a real business,” Dana White concluded. “You’ve just got to break it and rebuild it.”

Do you think Dana White could take the boxing industry to new heights?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 6/19/2019.