UFC
Dana White doesn’t appear to be backing down from the Power Slap backlash on the Internet.
For the past month, Power Slap has faced a heap of criticism from the Internet over the new slap-fighting league.
On Tuesday, White joined the Jim Rome Show and compared the Power Slap backlash to the criticism the UFC received during its early days.
“It’s the same thing that happened to the UFC, when the UFC started back in 2021 everybody was like this is horrible, this is terrible, this isn’t a real sport…this is brutal, this or that…I’ve heard all this before with the UFC”
(Audio courtesy of the Jim Rome Show)
White says that he’s tuned out the Internet and media for trying to cancel the league.
“If you listen to the Internet and let them affect and determine how you live your life or run your business, you’re making a big mistake” “I tune all that out, and the media too…if the media says it’s bad you’ve got a winner on your hands, the media knows nothing”
White went on to tout Power Slap’s social media numbers.
“The numbers don’t lie…and I was surprised at the numbers, we start Power Slap three weeks ago, I started a TikTok for Power Slap, it has 1.7 million followers in three weeks and 690 million views on TikTok…and if you look on Instagram, we have 100 million views on Instagram in three weeks, so I was right about the numbers, the numbers are there”
White also addressed the health and safety criticisms from the medical community.
“There’s nobody bigger than health and safety than me when it comes to the health and safety of our athletes, if you make sure, it’s not cheap, it’s expensive, that you have all the proper medical testing done before these guys compete you make it as safe as you possibly make a combat sport”
Here’s White’s response to Rome pressing him about power slap athletes not being able to defend themselves.
“Even if you can defend yourself in boxing, guys take 400-600 punches per fight, these guys take 3 slaps or less during an event.
2001-2023 you know how many people have died in the UFC or have been seriously injured? Zero.
2001-2023, you know how many people have people died in boxing? 34.”
Despite the backlash Power Slap is set to make its PPV debut on March 11th.