Although Top Rank has not promoted any programming in the United States since losing its deal with ESPN last July, the company and its founder Bob Arum remained the center target of Dana White’s rant at a Zuffa Boxing press conference.
White has launched a war of words against boxing’s old guard, claiming he is “beating babies” and that the system has allowed him to take over the sport.
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Central to Zuffa Boxing’s long-term plan is to use its political clout to pass the Muhammad Ali USA Boxing Restoration Act, a major piece of legislation that would allow Zuffa Boxing to operate like another TKO property, the UFC. White’s push to change the existing Ali bill angered many in the boxing world, including Top Rank president Todd Dobrev.
“I mean, it’s ridiculous,” Dubov told Uncrown’s “The Ariel Helwani Show” of the plans for TKO. “Why? I think it’s so disingenuous, and it’s really the fundamentals. Let’s talk about it – the UFC was created by the Nevada Boxing Commission regulators, right? Lorenzo Fertitta bought it. He’s a Nevada native [regulator]. …did not create it, [but made it into] Current version [of the UFC]right? …They both brought in Mark Ratner. They brought in Kirk Kendrick, right? They brought in Michael Mersch. they brought a lot [of people].
“They saw the problems with the regulation of boxing; [they] Created a business model [with the UFC] So they don’t have to give in to that. All they do is tell us how bad we are, how bad boxing is, Bob Arum is this, Bob Arum is that, fucking boxing is an old man’s sport. Now they want to come in… They say, ‘We want to compete. We want to play, but we want the rules to change for us and not others. “I saw Dana call someone ap****. It looked like af***ing p**** [move].
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“What do you mean you want to change the rules that only apply to you and not to other people?” Dubov continued. “I don’t get it. I really don’t get it. I think if you want to join the movement, that’s great. Join the movement, right? Join what it is [like now]which is the current [state]what we are all running. It’s like I want to trade stocks on the SEC, but I want to do it in a separate way – I want to be able to get ahead of someone, right? Or get inside information. This doesn’t make sense.
“But they’re very powerful. They’re very well connected. They have a great product in the UFC and WWE. They’re good at it. I think I understand their strategy – they want to build a boxing vertical. I don’t know which path they’re going to take on that. I’ve heard it’s a league, I’ve heard it’s not a league. I don’t know. I think they’re undecided on where they’re going.”
If the Ali Recovery Act passes (which is likely), it would pave the way for White to create a unified boxing organization where fighters would compete for the Zuffa belt and move into the UBO rankings. The move would see White own both the event and the title, giving him control that traditional boxing promoters don’t have.
The bill would also eliminate the Ali Act’s transparency requirements, which give top fighters on a card the right to know the financial elements of the events they participate in and the percentage they ultimately receive. No such law exists in MMA, so UFC fighters receive only 20% of the event’s revenue, while boxing talent can receive up to 80%.
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As Dubov noted, plans for Zuffa Boxing appear to be coming from all directions at the moment. Although White stated when he entered boxing that he would not recognize boxing’s sanctioning bodies, at a recent press conference White threatened to sue the International Boxing Federation after the AIBA withdrew sanctions against Jay Opetaia’s title defense against Brandon Granton at Zuffa Fight 4.
“Every time I walk into a kid’s room and he’s 17 or 18 years old and I meet his family, they all want to be world champions,” Dubov said. “They want to be world champions. They want to wear [WBC] Green belt. They want the WBA belt. They want the IBF belt. This is what I see. “
Rival promoter Eddie Hearn has been an outspoken supporter of boxing’s traditional four-division championship system in recent months, claiming that winning these belts is every boxer’s dream and that the Zuffar belt would not carry the same prestige. Dubov sided with Hearn on the topic, and it’s the equivalent of a UFC fighter’s salary.
“I think they have to be careful,” Dubov warned TKO. “I haven’t seen so many angry voices from MMA athletes [that I’m seeing] Today’s match against UFC [the past] 30 years. I’ve never seen this. The genie is out of the bottle. They played a game with Connor Benn’s stuff – I don’t know what the purpose of that game was – and then they tried to wipe the stuff off their hands and the dominoes fell.
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“I’ve never seen anything like this, where these athletes are so afraid of saying anything – it’s like the old Iron Curtain, where people didn’t say anything. Now these kids are voicing their opinions. I’m not sure they think this is where the dominoes are going to fall.”
After Zuffa’s shocking announcement that he had signed Benn to a one-fight contract reportedly worth $15 million, numerous UFC fighters, including Michael “Venom” Page, Aljamain Sterling, Israel Adesanya and Sean O’Malley, have commented, questioning the value of Benn’s deal with Regis Prograis and why their in-fight salaries have not increased despite the UFC’s massive increase in revenue from its new $7.7 billion TV show. trade.
Benn’s signing may have been a big boost for Zuffa Boxing, but at the same time, it also sparked one of the most consistent waves of criticism of UFC fighter pay in years. The saga not only provided ammunition for Ronda Rousey during her recent MVP MMA press conference, but it also allowed Hearn to sign UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall to Matchroom Talent Agency as a direct result of concerns about pay for the fight.
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[Yahoo Fantasy Bracket Mayhem: Make your picks for $50K in total prizes]
TKO maintains that it did not pay for Benn or Zuffa Boxing, and that Saudi Arabia’s SELA is responsible for providing lavish wallets to athletes such as Benn. SELA is also responsible for paying Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Terence Crawford for the 2025 Netflix blockbuster, which White helped promote.
White has criticized boxing promoters for their lack of vision in the past, but Dubov cannot understand why TKO and White have not invested any money into their boxing careers or implemented their sustainable economic policies in the UFC.
“That’s Dana. He’s a bully,” Dubov said of White. “I get it. I don’t get it, for my purposes – Dana, your words match your actions and your actions match your words, right? I listened to everything he used to destroy boxing promoters – we don’t take chances, we just show up and take advantage of everything for one night, we don’t take chances. And then I saw him in a photo getting a tattoo on an island between Crawford and Canelo, but he didn’t do anything. He just stood there like one of us promoters doing a standing cut between the two guys.
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“It makes me uncomfortable. It doesn’t feel like their business model. It feels like what he criticized us a few years ago, he did here. And then they said, ‘Oh, we’re not paying Connor Benn.’ Who signed him at the time? I don’t understand. I hope there’s consistency in what he criticized us in and the actions we’re going to take.”
