UFC PRESIDENT DANA White says he remains “absolutely, positively” intent on entering the parallel world of boxing promotion with his Zuffa Boxing company, which has failed to get off the ground since White announced its inception following the Floyd Mayweather v Conor McGregor crossover bout last year.
White has seen tentative efforts to sign Anthony Joshua and four-weight world champion Mikey Garcia rebuffed and is yet to put on a boxing show almost a year after proclaiming that Zuffa would make a big splash in the squared circle.
With the boxing industry booming, however, following a major TV reshuffle in the States, he claims the ball is once again rolling on his prospective venture into the sweet science.
“I had a meeting in LA yesterday,” he told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. “We are continuing to move forward, and we will absolutely, positively be in the boxing business.”
“I just bought the building next door here. We’re building a $12 million facility. We’ll basically have our own arena. We’ll be able to put fights right here next door and air them live anywhere in the world. I can do MMA fights, I can do boxing, I can do kickboxing, I can do jiu-jitsu, I can do all kinds of different fights and tournaments. We’re going to do a lot of things.”
The UFC head honcho has previously indicated that his boxing company will not work with any of the four main sanctioning bodies (the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO), but rather operate as its own league, completely under Zuffa’s control.
That could prove problematic in his bid to sign marquee names within the pugilistic realm, as any sort of Zuffa title will likely be largely derided before it gains any sort of credibility.
White, however, remains confident that he can recruit boxers from the top tier of the sport.
“If you know how I run my business and what I like, yes I want all the best boxers in the world,” he said. “I want them all to fight each other and find out who the real champ is. That’s what we’re going to do.”
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