“I will not recognise any of the other sanctioning bodies,” Dana White said in September when discussing Zuffa Boxing’s ambitions.
“I’m sure the WBC and the WBA and all those guys, they’ll still exist,” he had said little over six months earlier. “They just won’t work with us.”
Mauricio Sulaiman – the president of the WBC and one of the most prolific opportunists operating in an industry populated by those seeking opportunities where they shouldn’t exist – had already by then sought to build a relationship with the parent company of Zuffa, TKO.
“I have absolutely no concern or no negative views whatsoever [about TKO],” he told ESPN. “I think anything that comes into boxing is sensational.
“I think the WBC should make its position public, which is [TKO boxing] is a good opportunity because we have always supported any movement, any company, any tournaments that have been put together,” he also said with dollar signs in his eyes.
“I truly believe that with the multibillion joint venture that is supposed to be TKO and UFC and WWE and what His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh] has done in just under two years, it should be a great thing.”
Whether Zuffa will ultimately prove positive for boxing is far too early to tell, but if they continue to make Sulaiman and others feel threatened and that threat tames the wider sense of entitlement that so often defines the WBC they at least will have made a positive start.
It was in 2017 when White was first involved in boxing, when Conor McGregor, then the world’s highest-profile mixed martial artist, was cynically allowed to fight the 49-0 Floyd Mayweather on the occasion of McGregor’s professional debut. It was also Mayweather-McGregor when the troubling transformation of boxing’s identity into the even more shamelessly money-driven and attention-seeking entity it has increasingly become began.
For that occasion Sulaiman and the WBC, so often so determined to present themselves as boxing’s great guardians, created an unprecedented “money belt” – perhaps the most meaningless the sport has seen. Desperate to be a part of the fanfare, at the final pre-fight press conference Sulaiman unveiled a tacky Italian crocodile leather accessory compromising 3.3lbs of gold, 3,360 diamonds, 600 sapphires and 160 emeralds, at a cost in excess of $1m.
“The fight was made because of money, so we have the money belt,” Sulaiman gushed. “The idea was to have the most…
2026-02-11 05:00:00
If Zuffa Boxing succeed in their aims, don’t feel sorry for the WBC
