UFC head honcho Dana White is not only infiltrating the sport of boxing with the new boxing league backed by The Ring and Saudi, but he also seems to have strong opinions about an existing behemoth of the sport—Premier Boxing Champions (PBC). White’s criticism came on the heels of the highly controversial Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach Jr. fight earlier this month. As everyone and their grandmothers know by now, the Baltimore native suffered his first career draw against ‘The Reaper’ in New York. Many believed Roach Jr. had done enough to get his hand raised after the final bell but was slapped with a majority decision draw. However, that’s not the main reason the fight is mired in controversy. After all, iffy decisions are made every now and again.

The real crux of the issue is the no-knockdown call in the ninth round of the fight when Davis dropped to his knee and ran to his corner to get his face wiped. Instead of scoring the move a knockdown, referee Steve Willis let the fight continue with a mere warning to Davis. A few days later, the New York State Athletic Commission claimed they could not review the incident during the fight due to “technical issues.” This is what White seems to have a problem with.

While appearing in the Fight Freaks Unite podcast with seasoned boxing journalist Dan Rafael recently, the UFC president raised a couple of concerns with the PBC-Amazon Prime video event. At first, he fixated on his son’s experience attending the event live. “My son who’s been going to UFC his whole life. He just went to the Tank Davis fight the other night,” White began his long rant.

“He said the live experience was terrible. He said it was completely f**king unorganized… He couldn’t say enough bad things about it,” White continued. White explained that people watching the event from home don’t realize the problems that occur on the ground. He also seems to be at odds with how long the event runs, noting, “You know, you blow your whole evening sitting there waiting for them.” Hearing this, Rafael tried to defend the PBC event, highlighting how the event took far less time than it used to earlier, stating, “They didn’t even do some in-ring interviews after some of the pay-per-view fights.” That’s when White interjected. “Apparently, they didn’t even do replays…,” White responded. 

Rafael urged White not to lump up different things together, claiming that it was a different story, but White wasn’t done. “It’s part of the story… [In UFC] what happens is when something happens—eye poke, low blow—the f**king replay plays during the fight, while the fight’s still happening we do the replay,” White said, boasting about how things are done in his neck of the woods. Rafael then tried to explain the particular issue with the replays during the Gervonta Davis knee incident: “They had the replay, but they were not able to transmit in time. It’s a different matter.”

But Dana White wasn’t about to let go. “No, it’s not. It’s part of the same f**king problem,” he said. “There’s no money going into the production, the way that it should be. Our production is second to none.” When asked whether TKO’s boxing league will have the sort of production value White is boasting about, the UFC CEO answered, “100%.” It seems White has a lot of issues with the way the fight, as well as the whole event, turned out. However, regarding the knee not being recognized as a knockdown, that is a done and dusted business.

The NYSAC investigated the no-knockdown incident and decided to uphold the original decision after Roach Jr.’s appeal to overturn the decision. While White wasn’t happy with the production value, this ex-UFC referee wasn’t happy about something else.

Ex-UFC referee shares stance on Gervonta Davis no-knockdown call in Lamont Roach Jr. fight

Since the incident, many have shared their stance on the matter. While some agree it should have been a knockdown, others support Davis. Former UFC referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy has also weighed in on the controversial moment in Gervonta Davis’ fight against Lamont Roach Jr. “I don’t know what went through Willis’ (referee) head why he didn’t take it.” 

“But can’t call timeout, and the thing is, Gervonta said you know he had stuff from his hair. That was getting in his eyes, I’m not saying that’s not true. I believe him. That’s on you, dude,”  McCarthy said. “You are responsible for what’s in your hair. Because that stuff in your hair can also get into other fighters’ eyes. But that’s for you to deal with,” he added. 

It appears Dana White is not willing to miss any opportunity to criticize how the business of boxing is done traditionally. It’s clear he has his own agenda behind his claims, but it would be interesting to see how TKO Boxing does after such claims of glory from White. Do you agree with White?