Dana White wants boxing fans in their seats for the first fight, not the last one.
Speaking after Ryan Garcia stopped Conor Benn in Las Vegas, White laid out what he is trying to change about the sport he has moved into. The first target is regional matchmaking.
My thing with the boxing business is if you look at what we did in the UFC, traditionally in boxing, when I was involved in boxing before UFC, you had to fight in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. If you were fighting in New York, you better have a Puerto Rican. If you were fighting in LA, you better have a Mexican. That was kind of the way it worked.
A couple weeks ago, I fought with a Russian Muslim and an Irish kid in Philly. We sold it out, broke the record. At the end of the day, what matters are the fights that are being put on. What my goal is over the next couple of years is to gain the trust of the boxing fans.
His example was his own Saturday. White went to Noche UFC in Glendale, Arizona before flying back for Garcia and Benn.
When we went to Arizona tonight, the prelims were crazy. I mean, the place was packed, people were losing their minds. Those of you that cover UFC know that sometimes people are just as excited for one of the prelims as they are for the main event. I want to build that trust back in the boxing fans that if you fly out to Las Vegas, you’re going to see a great event from the first fight of the night to the main event.
The difference is how the two sports sell themselves. Boxing promotes an A-side against a B-side and treats the undercard as filler. The UFC sells the date and the brand, sometimes before naming a main event, because fans expect the prelims to be worth turning up for.
White thinks the fix runs beyond matchmaking.
I think it will take a couple of years. It’s about creating trust with the fans. Nobody walked out of Arizona and said, ‘We shouldn’t have came here tonight.’ I promise you. That’s what we have to bring back to boxing. And not just good matchmaking, good fights, but good hospitality.
He has a specific grievance there. White described taking his oldest son to a fight at the MGM a few years ago and finding other people in their seats, with too few ushers to sort it out.
