Power Slap is nothing if not controversial. After all, America’s first real slap-fighting league may be UFC CEO Dana White‘s brainchild, but is undoubtedly the least respected combat sport. Many fans even strongly object to the sport being classified as a martial art. However, along with being controversial, the second thing that Power Slap is is successful.

Or at least that is what Dana White has claimed. The UFC CEO, of course, has overtaken even major US sports in social media popularity and recently even claimed that it had taken over even the most successful soccer club in the world, Real Madrid in social media followers.

And now, the UFC CEO has made perhaps the biggest, most bombastic claim about the controversial league yet. Speaking to comedians Bret Kreischer and Tom Segura on their ‘2 Bears 1 Cave’ podcast, White claimed the market valuation of Power Slap had ballooned up to ‘between $750 million to $1 billion’.

“We already have 17 million followers on social media um in 19 months right we have more sponsors than the UFC had in 10 years. So on in 19 months this thing’s like anywhere between if you did a real valuation on it, it’s anywhere between $750 [million] and a billion dollars,” White added.

As always when talking about Power Slap, the UFC CEO also recapped the familiar story of how he got interested in starting America’s first and certainly the world’s biggest slap-fighting league.

“I started watching it and production was horrible they literally were slapping over like a f—ing barrel… but it had 350 million views on YouTube… And I was like ‘What if I did this made it a just like the UFC, turn it into a real sport you know?’ And the answer is f—-ing billions of views,” White told the comedians proudly. While Dana White may be quite proud of Power Slap and its apparent success, red flags were raised by a recent alarming study led by Raj Swaroop Lavadi published in the journal Jama Surgery.

Study reveals the extent of risk athletes at in Dana White-founded Power Slap

Power Slap—a sport that’s new, brutal, and as controversial as it gets. From the very beginning, fight fans knew what they were seeing: concussions, brain trauma, and a high-risk spectacle. But just how dangerous is it really?

A group of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System decided to find out. Using video analysis, they quantified the cognitive health risks in Power Slap, and the findings are, quite frankly, alarming. More than half of the slaps resulted in fighters showing visible signs of concussion. Even more concerning, 78% of fighters showed signs of concussion at least once during their contests.

Think about it—nearly eight out of every ten competitors walk away concussed. Slap fighters are essentially trading brain cells for sport, and this data makes it brutally clear: Power Slap is more dangerous than anything else in the realm of combat sports. We’ve seen what repeated brain damage can do—just look at some former MMA fighters or NFL players, whose speech and mobility have suffered after years of punishment. Now, Power Slap seems to push those risks to the extreme, making its athletes the most vulnerable to long-term brain damage.

So, where do we draw the line? The findings are stark, and they force us to confront the price these fighters are paying each time they step into the arena. What do you think about these unsettling findings—does the thrill of Power Slap justify the cost?