UFC CEO Dana White is confident that ‘Power Slap’ is set for explosive growth that may even surpass MMA in popularity. Launched in 2022, the ‘slap fighting league has continued to grow online despite controversies and criticisms labeled against it for the dangers posed to the athletes due to repeated head trauma and the rules not allowing an athlete to defend themselves. In a previous appearance on comedian Andrew Schulz’s ‘Flagrant’ podcast, the UFC boss had claimed, “We have over a billion YouTube views. Eight of the top 12 largest YouTube shorts against other major sports are Power Slap. Four of the top five largest YouTube shorts on UFC’s channel.”

Recently, at a press conference for a ‘Power Slap’ event, the UFC head honcho was asked to share his thoughts on the staggering numbers the venture has been generating on multiple online platforms and what his plans are to “build this business”. In his response, Dana White made a bold prediction about what his vision for ‘Power Slap’ is!

Dana White puts ‘Power Slap’ detractors on blast with his recent comments

During the press conference, Dana White was asked to share his thoughts on the ‘Power Slap’ reality show garnering 40 million views and over 7 billion social media followers across numerous platforms and what these numbers mean for the venture and its future growth potential. As such, White responded by stating, “Well, first of all, the minute that I saw this I knew that it was built for social and I told you the one that I saw with Dumpling this thing on YouTube at the time in ’17 had 350 million views.”

‘Dumpling’ is the nickname of Russian slapper, Vasily Kamotsky who is known as one of the most recognizable ‘slappers’ in the world. At the recent UFC Saudi Arabia post-fight press conference, White had revealed that it was watching Kamotsky’s videos online that got him interested in the unique contest.

White also shared an intriguing story about an MMA event in South Korea that incorporated slapping before the main event. Despite having no prior following, a slap video from this event quickly reached 260 million views. “It’s not a knockout or anything like that,” White noted, emphasizing the raw, captivating nature of the content.

Reflecting on the early days of the UFC, White drew parallels to the rapid rise of Power Slap and confidently stated, “I said it before, and I’ll say it again: This will be the biggest sport in the world, this will be bigger than the UFC.”

Dana White’s enthusiasm for Power Slap is evident in his strategic approach to building its presence through social media channels. His claim about it becoming bigger than the UFC also challenges detractors of the venture who have claimed that the niche spectacle will fizzle out eventually. Nevertheless, White also had to back-pedal when he recently got fact checked about his claims of the popularity of ‘Power Slap’ compared to other major sports!

White gets a reality check on ‘Power Slap’s standing in the sports world

During his conversation with Andrew Schulz, the UFC boss claimed “We have more followers than every single professional sport, every professional sports team, we have more followers than them” when talking about ‘Power Slap’s popularity. When the podcast host brought up an example of immensely popular football team, ‘Real Madrid’ as an example, White doubled down on his claims as he went on to reveal that while he isn’t familiar with “soccer teams”, he confidently stated, “I would say yes, every f****** sports team we have more followers than.”

However, this led to an uproar on social media with fans coming out to scrutinize White’s claims as one fan pointed out that Real Madrid dwarfs Power Slap’s numbers on Instagram with 162 million followers compared to 4 million for White’s venture. The UFC boss did later admit that he misspoke in a post on X and claimed he had meant to say views instead of followers.

Despite this hiccup, White’s commitment to Power Slap’s growth remains strong, and only time will tell if his prediction about it surpassing the UFC’s popularity will come true or not. Do you think ‘Power Slap’ will become a major mainstream sport in the future? Why or why not? Share your thoughts in the comments below!