UFC CEO Dana White has officially stepped into the boxing world, unveiling plans to promote the much-anticipated ‘fight of the century’ between Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Terence Crawford — and to shake up the sport itself in the process.
White, 56, will lead the charge through his newly reactivated promotional arm, Zuffa Boxing, which he says is designed to fix many of the long-standing problems that have plagued the sport.
Speaking on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, White detailed his vision: “I took a lot of things from boxing that I loved — and a lot of things that I hated — when I started the UFC,” he said. “I’m going to do the same thing on the boxing side now.”
Reflecting on boxing’s golden era, White lamented the fragmentation that followed when sanctioning bodies and business politics began to overshadow the fights fans wanted.
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“When I grew up, Hagler fought Hearns, Leonard fought Hagler — all the best fought each other,” he said. “But once there was so much money involved, and all these sanctioning bodies came in, that’s when it started to fall apart.”
White also voiced concern about the decline of amateur boxing in the U.S., pointing to its disappearance from major TV networks as a major red flag. “I saw amateur boxing starting to fall apart. They had the box-offs, then it disappeared from the big networks. That’s when I knew boxing was in trouble. So, we jumped into MMA and started doing our thing.”
Despite these issues, White sees enormous opportunity. With mainstream attention at an all-time high — and legacy fights like Canelo vs. Crawford on the horizon — he believes boxing is ripe for transformation. “Everything in life is about timing, and my move into boxing right now is about timing — it’s the perfect time.
Nobody has a real television deal in boxing right now. There are some fights on DAZN, and that’s it. I’ll come in (in 2026) with a TV deal, we’ll put on great fights, and we’ll see what happens.”
White’s Zuffa Boxing project has been years in the making. After shelving the idea in the past due to internal UFC expansion, he now appears fully committed to entering boxing with the same disruptive energy that helped him turn the UFC into a global powerhouse.
With Canelo vs. Crawford set to be his first major venture, White is aiming to make an immediate impact — and perhaps reshape boxing’s future in the process.
