Dana White Wants To Fix The Pay System In Boxing

Ever since Conor McGregor fought Floyd Mayweather two years ago, UFC president Dana White, has openly spoken about his desire to enter the world of boxing. And after two years of talking about it, it looks like that it is finally going to happen imminently. Speaking last month, the Dana said that he had hired someone to run Zuffa Boxing and that hoped that they would be in their new office by October.

In the same interview, Dana also stated that the current boxing model is broken and believes he’s the man to fix it. Speaking to Sports Illustrated (as transcribed by Bloody Elbow), Dana discussed further his thoughts on the current boxing system.

The UFC boss dismissed suggestions that the UFC doesn’t pay their fighters well, adding that there is a huge inequality in the amount boxers earn.

“There’s always this talk. You know we went through this talk for almost 20 years where, ‘oh you don’t pay your [UFC] fighters and boxers get more,’

“The fighters get paid. Everybody gets paid. Everybody is being paid, and it’s not just the top two or three. Everybody on the roster, I got over 600 guys that are getting paid and making a living and feeding their families and buying houses and cars and all these other things.”

“Now when you look at boxing, a handful of guys make crazy money, and that’s the way it’s always been built. And then you have thousands of people that don’t. So I think that we can create a pay system [in boxing] that benefits everybody.

“There still fights out there where you just turn pro and guys are making $400 to fight. $100 per round and things like that. You got guys fighting for world titles for $10,000 and $15,000. That’s what I want to fix.”

When presented with the facts, you can see that Dana has a point. Bloody Elbow’s John Nash published a report last month showing the huge inequality in boxing purses. It showed that the top 10% of boxers earned 95% of all the income in boxing.

Dana has also expressed in the past, his frustration that the best fighters don’t fight the best fighters in boxing. With the launch of Zuffa Boxing imminent, it will be interesting to see how successful it will be in the world of boxing.

Do you think Zuffa Boxing will be a success?


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