UFC CEO Dana White has expressed skepticism over claims that influencer boxing events, such as the recent Misfits event featuring KSI vs. Tommy Fury and Logan Paul vs. Dillon Danis, are achieving high pay-per-view numbers, asserting that if they were truly pulling in over a million buys, promoters and broadcast partners would be eager to work with them.
Dana White, UFC CEO, is no stranger to the pay-per-view business. A significant portion of UFC’s revenue comes from at least 12 pay-per-view events annually.
White knows it’s not easy to convince fans to pay for fights. He’s skeptical about the reported success of influencer boxing events like the recent Misfits card featuring KSI vs. Tommy Fury and Logan Paul vs. Dillon Danis.
This skepticism is especially strong given reports that the event sold 1.3 million pay-per-views. “I haven’t heard about anybody selling a lot of pay-per-views lately,” White said on The Full Send podcast.
He emphasized the difficulty of selling 1.3 million pay-per-view buys. He suggested that if an event sold even 700,000 buys, they’d be hosting fights ten times a year.
White is suspicious of the high numbers reported in the pay-per-view world. He bluntly stated, “When you hear those kinds of numbers fly around the pay-per-view world, they’re lying motherf******. Don’t ever believe that s***.”
He thinks if influencer boxing events were truly pulling in near 1 million buys, promoters and broadcasters would be eager to work with them. “You know how much money that is if they cut a deal and did 1.3 million pay-per-view buys?” White asked.
He further expressed his doubt, saying anyone claiming to have sold 1.3 million pay-per-view buys at their event is “lying through their f****** teeth.” He suggested that if those numbers were true, they’d be hosting pay-per-views constantly and every distributor would want them.
White acknowledges the hype around influencer boxing cards. Sometimes, these events even overshadow higher-quality fights featuring skilled fighters who don’t receive as much attention.
However, he has no interest in seeing fights between YouTubers with no real fighting ability. He described these as low-level boxing matches.
“It’s much cheaper and a much better experience [just to watch the highlights],” White said. He criticized the production quality and the fights themselves, calling it “s***** boxing.”
White clarified that he’s not trying to put them down. He doesn’t care what these guys do. But he insists that the claim of selling a million buys is false. He believes that if they were truly selling near a million buys, people would be “throwing f****** truckloads of money at them.”