Dana White thinks much more of UFC’s future is Power Slap and boxing

Mixed martial arts has seen an unprecedented rise in popularity in recent years with the rise of the UFC. And according to UFC President and CEO Dana White, this may not be the last combat sport to do this.

“[Power Slap] “It could be as big as the UFC,” White told Andrew Ross Sorkin at the CNBC Sports x Boardroom Game Plan Summit in New York on Thursday.

“When you look at the numbers, we have the most viewed YouTube short video ever in sports on Power Slap, the most viewed video ever in sports on TikTok, and the numbers are literally astronomical as to what we’re getting out of this thing,” he said. “And it’s global. It’s already a global business.”

For those who missed the brutal viral clips, Power Slap consists of two contestants standing on a table in the middle of a padded stage, giving each other full-force, open-palmed slaps until one person physically recovers. The mix of combat and shock entertainment has captured the attention of audiences, and White’s optimism about his growing popularity is more than just talk.

According to social media analysis platform SocialprufPower Slap generated 1.88 billion impressions last year; His posts garnered nearly 40 million likes and a media value of $48 million.

Many high-profile sponsors have capitalized on this wave of popularity and jumped at the chance to throw their names into the mix of flying flat palms. Anheuser-Busch, Monster Energy, VeChain, Circa Sports and 500 Casino are among the many brands that have embraced White’s sports vision to this point.

“I thought sponsorship would be difficult,” White said. “[Power Slap] has more sponsors [in its first two years] More than the UFC has had in 10 years.”

Finding participants willing to endure the beatings regularly seen in the Power Slap world may seem harder than finding advertisers. Going into this strange process of talent acquisition, White emphasized endurance, courage, and high pain tolerance as important considerations.

“There are tens to hundreds of thousands of people wrestling every weekend all over the world. They’ll jump off a ladder onto a table full of nails for $50 a night,” he said. “These are the guys I’m going to go after.”

What makes slap boxing so successful? White says there are two things that apply to any successful sport: “You have to have a great live event, and it has to be good on television.”

But since Power Slap’s main viewership growth came in the form of short-form videos posted on social media rather than a traditional live television broadcast, White specifically emphasized the latter factor.

This also captured White’s first glimpse of the sport.

“In 2017 and 2018, these things started popping up on my social media,” he said. “Everything I do in the fight business is instinctive, and I said it was interesting the fact that I wanted to watch it and see who won.”

White said that as he dug deeper into the subject, he saw how many views slap boxing had, which was “the equivalent of liking a Justin Bieber video at the time” on YouTube.

This led to him pitching the Fertitta brothers, who parted ways with their stake in the UFC, about investing in the business, which launches in 2022.

White is also investing in a boxing business called Zuffa Boxing, which aims to implement the centralized model followed by the UFC.

White, who held his first event in January, said Zuffa Boxing is a better bet in the short term than Power Slap because “boxing has been broken for a long time,” White said.

“We’ve been at this for six months and it’s understandable why it broke down,” he said. “All the promoters I compete against are really bad at what they do… it’s a lot simpler than I expected.”

White said that “the boxing business has always been incredible from an economic standpoint” and that fights and cards can bring in large amounts of money. But he added: “Every time they fight, it’s like an out-of-business sellout.”

Zuffa Boxing and other fighting properties that White leads aim to put that money back into the hands of fighters.

“It’s getting better and better,” White said of the fighters’ economy. “First of all, these guys at Power Slap were slapping for free when I bought the companies. Now they’re paid very well. As for the UFC fighters, the wages have literally gone up that way since we took the job,” he makes a straight upward motion with his hands.