Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum believes UFC President Dana White is venturing into the world of boxing in order to save his company.
And by moving forward with the idea of staging boxing events, Arum feels White is openly admitting that boxing is more popular than mixed martial arts.
Last August, White's biggest company superstar, Conor McGregor, made his professional boxing debut against the comebacking five division champion Floyd Mayweather, who won the contest with a tenth round TKO at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The UFC co-promoted the August pay-per-view event with Mayweather Promotions.
Both McGregor and Mayweather made a fortune from the fight, with 4 million pay-per-view buys - revenue numbers that created a frenzy as several top boxing names have called out McGregor.
During the course of this year, White and the UFC brass are going to enter the world of boxing with their "Zuffa Boxing" brand - which is going to be run under the same ownership umbrella as UFC.
According to Arum, the UFC's decline is the sole reason for White's interest in boxing.
"By coming in the business, he is really admitting that boxing is the more popular sport,” Arum told TMZ. “And in order to keep his company alive, he has to go into the boxing business."
Last month, White issued a warning to Arum. He expects to make big waves in the boxing industry, and feels that eventually he will be the one on top looking down at Arum.
“You’ll see, Bob,” White said. “We’ll see at the end. Bob’s the same guy who said the UFC would never work, and the UFC was loosing ‘oodles’ of money, whatever the f*** ‘oodles of money’ means. Look at what we’ve done and look at where we are. I mean, come on. At the end of the day, we’ll see who stands where when the smoke clears and the dust settles.
“I’ll give it to him, though. For a f***ing 95-year-old dude, this guy’s pretty feisty, man. I’ll give it to him. I’ll give him that.”
@newarkhiphop
