UFC fighters likely won’t be happy to see that Zuffa Boxing’s roster is receiving specialist outfitting treatment.
Various UFC stars spoke out when Conor Benn’s deal with Zuffa Boxing led to comparisons between what the athletes signed to the two rosters are making.
Dustin Poirier has said Zuffa Boxing doesn’t want any crossover with the UFC but it’s impossible to now point out how the two promotions are both similar and different.
Dana White’s boxing venture recently introduced a new element that differs from MMA’s top promotion regarding what their athletes can wear when competing.
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Zuffa Boxing’s top stars are exempt from wearing the promotion’s standard uniform
Dana White was critical of the production for Zuffa Boxing 9 following a successful night for two of the promotion’s biggest signings to date.
Both Edgar Berlanga and Richardson Hitchins secured wins while breaking the promotion’s mould by not wearing the uniforms that fans have become accustomed to.
Ariel Helwani highlighted this while recapping the action from this past weekend on his show, revealing that Berlanga and Hitchins aren’t the only ones that are exempt from Zuffa’s outfitting policy.
“I asked about [this] and I was told that if you are a fighter of a certain stature, you are sort of allowed to do your own thing,” he said. “Why can’t that be the case in the UFC by the way? I would be totally down with that.”
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This month’s UFC 329 did see the MMA leader produce new custom shorts for two more fighters, but this is still different to what is happening with Zuffa Boxing.
Berlanga and Hitchins were able to walk out and compete in their own fully unique gear instead of redesigning the existing uniform.
Unique ring gear is a staple of boxing, but this was also the case in the UFC before the promotion signed a six-year apparel partnership with Reebok in 2014.
Long-time fans won’t need much prompting to recall the iconic looks that legends like Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, and Mirko Cro Cop were famous for.
Helwani did make the case that he’s not against fighters new to the UFC having a standard uniform, but has echoed fans and fighters when arguing that athletes should get the opportunity to express…
2026-07-28 03:00:00
