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Despite the obvious bad look it created for TBS, Dana White’s latest brainchild Power Slap aired its first broadcast Wednesday night.
It was pure car crash TV. Viewers, including Buffalo Bills star Stefon Diggs, were at the same time repulsed as well as fascinated by the spectacle.
“We spend the money to make sure we have two healthy people in there, proper medical attention during and after the fight,” White said in a promotional video. “These are all the things we need to educate people on, just like we needed to educate people on mixed martial arts.
“But in Slap, they take three to five slaps per event. Fighters in boxing take 300 to 400 punches per fight. And guess what, you know what my answer to that is? If you don’t f—ing like it, don’t watch it! Nobody’s asking you to watch this.”
One person out there who was definitely disgusted by it is former UFC referee “Big” John McCarthy.
During a special episode of Weighing In posted after Power Slap’s first show, McCarthy laid into the “sport.”
“I’m just going to tell you straight out. I’m all for competition and I’m all for any kind of competition, for the most part. I really am,” McCarthy said. “I just find it hard to believe, especially with places like Nevada, that they are regulating sanctioned brain trauma. That’s what it is. There’s NO defense of any type.”
McCarthy continued, “How do you talk about this and say, ‘Oh, I get to stand there and let someone…’ and the best part is, you know they sit there with these rules because they put that chalk that you’re seeing. You know what that chalk’s for? It’s a marker, supposedly to say where you’re allowed to hit someone because you can’t hit them past the ear, but I watch guys do it all the time. Your fingertips can’t go past the ear, but I watch it all the time. So there’s really, there is no rules to it.
“I’m going to take my palm and the base of my hand and I’m going to hit it as close to the middle of your f—ing jaw as I can so I can knock you out. I can cause a concussion I can cause brain trauma and what are these guys getting paid? They ain’t getting paid sh-t. Not enough for f—ing brain damage.”
It’s quite the discussion involving a guy with a ton of experience in combat sports.
Watch the whole segment below and see what you think.