This year the Ultimate Fighting Championship entered into the world of boxing in a big way when their top star Conor McGregor fought Floyd Mayweather. The fight garnered a lot of interest from both sporting worlds and definitely opened a new door for boxers and mixed martial arts fighters.
But it also showed UFC President Dana White one thing: there’s a lot of money to be made in boxing.
The UFC promoter has announced that he is officially making a move to become a name in boxing as well. White has plans to have meetings with the big names that run boxing, though not with Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya since there seem to be issues between all parties.
“Hell no. I don’t need them. Can’t work with them. De La Hoya hates Arum and Arum hates De La Hoya. They’re exactly alike. Both of those guys are carbon copies of each other,” explained White according to Bloody Elbow.
White has high hopes of making it in the boxing industry and working with the biggest names in the sport, especially since he has nearly over two decades of experience promoting big fights in MMA.
One of the promoters he’ll meet is Lou DiBella, who is known for being involved with the WBC World heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
Sophia is getting lonely. She needs some sister wives. @anthonyfjoshua … don’t wait, make the date MATE. #BombZquad#THEHeavyweightChampionOfTheWorld#SophiaTheBelt#WilderJoshua#Undisputedpic.twitter.com/Tj30vssEGI
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) November 20, 2017
“Right now, I have two different plans. I have a Plan A and a Plan B. And I’m not sure which I’m gonna go with. But I’m gonna sit down, I’m gonna talk to everybody in the industry. They all want to come out here, they all want to talk. Fighters want to come out here and talk. So many people. So I’m gonna take like a month at the beginning of the year and just focus on this thing and see what we’re gonna do,” told White.
Boxing is booming at moment and White wants to get a piece of pie and that includes Anthony Joshua according to the UFC President himself.
Dana White says he would like to work with Anthony Joshua in the boxing world. "In my opinion, right now, he's the most marketable guy in boxing."
— Adam Hill (@AdamHillLVRJ) November 28, 2017
During a press conference, White said he’s ready to make the move over to boxing because “the time is right”.
“I think that right now is the right time. I just feel it. I feel like it’s the right time. Listen, can I do it? I don’t know. Will it work? I don’t know. But I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how to make it work. And I’ll give it a shot.”
White has been a fan of Joshua after his win over Wladimir Klitschko back in April. He congratulated Joshua online and wrote: “Boxing had been DYING waiting for an exciting HW champ. Now they have it in @anthony_joshua CONGRATS champ”.
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