“I have a plan.” Dana White might just save the realm of boxing with his new venture: TKO Boxing. And to help him with the plans of making boxing great again, Sheikh Turki Alalshikh stood beside him. But MMA and boxing are two distinct worlds with people expecting different things from the champions. And one such requirement was the champions’ undefeated record. But that wasn’t everything!

On 5 March 2025, White appeared on the set of ESPN’s First Take for a conversation with Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim. Therein, Smith pointed out what he thought was the problem with boxing. And it was the ‘L’ in the boxers’ record. There was a time when the great ones had a couple of losses in their professional records. But that didn’t stop them from becoming a fan favorite fighter. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier are the perfect examples of that. On the other hand, UFC doesn’t necessitate fighters to have an undefeated record to be considered great. Basing on that, Smith asked, “What role does that play in your thinking when it comes to really uplifting the sport?”

White knew what was at stake. The audience wanted nothing but noble fights. And that would begin with White trying to eliminate the prerequisite of having an undefeated record. He said, “That’s all gonna go away. There’s a lot of guys out there that we’re looking at that are gonna be in this roster that have a lot of Os behind there. They’re all gonna fight each other. And what people wanna see are great fights and they wanna know who is the best in the world.” 

But little did the world know that White would take the example of Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach to explain the weakness of the current boxing scenario. Dana White claimed, “My son just went to that show (Tank vs. Roach) this weekend. He said the live event was terrible and disorganized. We are going to clean that up. We’re gonna make the events great again too. The run of show will run faster, and it won’t take nine hours to see four fights. These guys put on a fight, and then have a podcast, and then put on another fight, and have a podcast. The show will run like UFC does. Fight after fight after fight.” 

No doubt, the world of martial arts could witness a significant change in the realm of boxing with TKO Boxing taking the charge. The UFC head honcho certainly has a lot on his mind. But where would he begin? Let’s find out!

How does Dana White plan to make boxing great again?

On 5 March 2025, Sheikh Turki Alalshikh and White joined The Pat McAfee Show. Therein, the UFC head honcho revealed his major qualm with boxing. It was the fact that no one ever invested in the sport. He blamed the promoters who took everything from the sport but rarely reinvested the profits. But Sheikh Turki Alalshikh was the one who invested the highest amount of money into boxing in a short period. With the deal for TKO Boxing signed, things were indeed going for the betterment of the sport.

White said, “Now that we’ve got the deal done, what we do now is start to build the infrastructure. We’ve got to build a team, then we have to go out and get a rights deal. Whoever we end up doing a deal with we can structure this thing to whatever the network needs. We can put on as many fights as they want.” Both White and Sheikh Turki Alalshikh have several big names in their mind. And these names are destined to entertain the fighting community with their fists. White continued, “There’s a lot of fun, exciting fights to make out there, and you know how I run shows — the live events will all change, it will be much better than anything you’ve ever seen before.”

With such promises, the UFC head honcho has already won over the boxing realm. Now, all we need to do is wait for the first fight to be announced. After White refused to entertain crossover fights between MMA and boxing, the fighting world has kept a keen eye on everything related to TKO Boxing. And the announcement will soon raise the fans’ entropy. 

What are your thoughts on the changes that White promised to bring into the land of squared rings? Is there any other change that the UFC CEO should think about? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.