Dana White is settling into life as a boxing promoter, and he says the sport is proving just as universal as the combat business he already conquered. Speaking ahead of the Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn card, White laid out his vision for pulling boxing back into the American mainstream over the next several years.
“So my goal over the next, you know, five, six years is to rebuild boxing in America,” White said. “The UK has always been, I mean realistically boxing is a UK sport right now.”
White pointed to the athletes themselves as the reason he believes the plan will work, saying the willingness to face anyone has been the biggest surprise since he entered the sport.
“You know, like a lot of the matches that weren’t made that should happen or should have happened, you know, 10, 15 years ago, I truly believed it was the boxers,” he said. “But now that I’m in this thing and you talk to the boxers, these guys all want to compete against each other. I mean, they want to compete against the best.”
Asked who was actually responsible for boxing’s biggest matches falling apart over the years, White didn’t hesitate.
“Here’s what it hasn’t been. The boxers.”
White also addressed why Garcia’s massive social media following matters more than critics give it credit for, framing it as proof the sport can reach a younger audience that has drifted away.
“Why would they say that about how many social media followers he has? You know why that’s really important? It means that the young demographic that does not watch boxing watches Ryan Garcia,” he said. “A few years ago, like my sons didn’t watch boxing growing up. They watched UFC.”
He tied the strategy back to the blueprint that built the UFC into a global product, arguing the same approach translates directly to boxing.
“The way that I built the UFC was based on everything that I loved about boxing and everything that I hated about boxing,” he said. “So, if it worked like it worked for the UFC, imagine how it’s going to work for boxing.”
White described breaking longstanding regional booking habits in combat sports as central to that model, pointing to a recent card in Philadelphia as an example.
“A couple weeks ago, I was in Philly and I put on a match with a Russian Muslim and an Irish kid. Sold out, broke the arena record,” he said. “Now, that never happened in boxing. In boxing, you either did a match in Vegas or Atlantic City, right? If you went to New York, you better have a Puerto Rican. If you went to LA, you better have a Mexican… I broke the mold on all that.”
He also singled out the UK market as central to his plans going forward, calling the fan turnout there among the best he has experienced since crossing over into boxing.
“The UK has been one of my greatest experiences in being in the combat business,” he said. “I always tell people, you have to see a match in the UK.”
