Do you remember the last time Dana White promoted a boxing match? It was back in 2017 when Conor McGregor fought Floyd Mayweather in one of the biggest crossover fights ever. Not just that, the fight broke multiple gate and PPV records.
With over 4.3 million PPV buys and over $600 million in revenue generated, it lived up to its name, ‘The Money Fight.’ So now that the UFC head honcho is dabbling in boxing promotion again, Daniel Cormier is excited.
The fight in question is another blockbuster, undisputed super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez vs the WBA light middleweight champion Terence Crawford.
With two of the best fighters of this generation going up against each other, in what will be his first boxing fight since announcing the new boxing league with Ring Magazine and Turki Alalshikh, ‘DC’ sees this as a repeat of 2017.
In a YouTube video for his channel, he spoke about the UFC boss’ involvement, saying, “And because Dana White is going to promote this thing, I feel like it’ll bring a different level of interest into the UFC.”
But the attention won’t be just towards the UFC, according to Cormier.
“It’s gonna be a blockbuster event, it’s going to be one of the biggest PPV events we’ve ever seen….And I do believe that added element, that Dana’s going to be promoting that Riyadh Season is going to be promoting, it’s going to make more people tap in,” The former UFC champ confidently stated.
In fact, he’s sure that they’re going to sell out Allegiant Stadium, and he will be there to watch it front row. He’s not about to miss one of the biggest boxing events in recent history.
But while ‘DC’ may be full of praise towards the UFC head honcho, the fans are still concerned about the athlete pay system that White is going to implement.
Canelo will send the cartel behind White, say fans
Shortly after the announcement of TKO’s new boxing league, the UFC president killed all the excitement by announcing the pay system he had in mind.
Under his new plan, boxers fighting for the league’s belt would only secure a purse of $750,000, a far cry from what champions, especially the ones like Canelo, earn.
To put the discrepancy into perspective, for his fight against William Scull yesterday, Canelo is said to have made $80 million.
And to expect him or other boxers to be okay with earning $750k for defending their belt seemed unreal to fans. So when they saw White promoting the fight on social media, the trolling began.
“When Dana White gives Canelo that $50K performance of the night bonus, Canelo might send the cartel after that mf”, said one prominent MMA page on X.
when Dana White gives Canelo that $50K performance of the night bonus, Canelo might send the cartel after that mf https://t.co/eAwGnsqDdh
— ACD MMA (@acdmma_) May 4, 2025
While another fan called out the UFC head honcho, “This guy can’t get us Ilia VS Islam or Jones VS Aspinall and now he is promoting boxing.”
To back the cartel accusations, one fan even wrote, “In Canelo’s ring walk, he literally had the most well-known Sinaloa Cartel-sponsored singer, Luis R Conriquez, singing in his ring walk.”
But since they are not fighting for the new Boxing League’s belt, the purse system will not change. Moreover, with this fight almost guaranteed to break PPV records, it would be hard to see why White would want to cut costs.
How, his UFC stars react to see boxers make 1o times what they make for a fight that is expected to draw similar PPV numbers as big title fights in the octagon remains to be seen.
