In a insult-filled post on his Instagram account, UFC CEO & President Dana White displayed an unusual level of hostility towards Showtime President Stephen Espinoza following unsubstantiated reports of boxing no longer being featured on the Showtime platform in 2024 and beyond. While White has frequently expressed his disdain for the boxing industry, his latest rant lacked substance and appeared to be more of an attempt to harass Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza on social media.
This entire saga between the two presidents started following a press conference with Dana White where the subject had been broached of rumors involving Showtime and their parent company Paramount+ looking to shelf boxing. Though these reports have existed for a while, a recent Twitter post seemed to elaborate on the PBC’s relationship with Showtime and the boxing fights that would apparently no longer be held after 2024.
“I can confirm that Showtime will not be continuing their boxing schedule, after 2024. Following a number of conferences/calls across the pond over the past fortnight, I can attest that Showtime will be pulling the plug on boxing – after 37 years in the industry.” Boxing analyst Raf alleged on Twitter on September 26th.
“It should be noted that the remaining schedule for the 2023 calendar year will remain unaffected. However beyond 2024, there are no plans to renew current deals and that outside of sporadic PPV’s.
“ShoBox will no longer be a feature and if Showtime dabbles in boxing again, it’ll be one-off PPV events only.“
Although none of these claims have been officially confirmed, Showtime President Stephen Espinoza stated that “no decision has been made” while emphasizing that “anything could happen”. However, some media outlets wasted no time in mentioning these unconfirmed reports to Dana White during a press conference for the upcoming season of the upcoming UFC show “Dana White’s Contender Series“.
“It’s unfortunate to hear this.” Dana White mockingly stated during the press conference, before launching into an X-rated rant.
“F*** Espinoza, and it’s about time that that sh***y product is off the air.“
White’s comments were seemingly addressed by Stephen Espinoza during his own profanity-absent speech during the Alvarez-Charlo press conference.
“The event on Saturday night will generate a gate of over $20 million.” Espinoza said during the press conference.
“That’s a rare feat in combat sports. It’s rare in concerts or events of any kind, but this will be the third time in the last six months that we’ve done a gate of $20 million. Again, our third $20 million gate in the last six months.
“To put that into perspective, UFC has never done a gate of $20 million in its entire history. We’ve done it three times, since April.“
Though neither White or his comments were specifically mentioned during Espinoza’s speech, Dana White seemed to have felt affronted and took to social media not long after to post his decisively childish and unnecessary rant regarding Stephen Espinoza.
“That’s exactly the type of response I would expect from that weasel Espinoza.” White scathingly said on Instagram.
“That scumbag has absolutely nothing to do with the success of Canelo, Ryan Garcia, and Terence Crawford. Those guys are megastars and they are responsible for driving the gates in their fights.
“For him to even try and take any credit at all shows you exactly what an arrogant, delusional POS that guy is.
“For this clown to talk about ‘levels’ is hilarious. The production of the fights on Showtime is an EMBARASSMENT and I have been saying that forever. He is a little guy with a BIG YAP, and is a complete phony.
“I’m not surprised this is the end for them. It should have come way sooner. Sorry to see you go, Weasel, enjoy your retirement.“
There have been a number of discrepancies detected in White’s social media rant which do not paint an actual truth of circumstances.
To start off with, Terence Crawford has long been seen as one of the best boxers on the planet but has only recently gotten into the nation-wide recognition following his dominant win over Errol Spence Jr. on July 29th this year. This success can and should be attributed to Showtime given Crawford has not had the same amount of earnings or popularity when he was still a Top Rank fighter and featured on ESPN numerous times.
Espinoza’s words also never indicated he was responsible for the success off all aforementioned fighters, as he more so drove home to the point of Showtime’s overall success rather than that of the fighters White mentioned.
As Showtime and promotion/management company PBC have proven, they have reawakened interest in the sport since earlier hosting the blockbuster fights between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr., and in April the lightweight contest between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia. September 30th will feature another Showtime/PBC production in Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo.
As Espinoza revealed, all three of those fights have been considered mega-fights and have raked in quite a lot of profit and interest, which is a credit to both Showtime and PBC as they have not necessarily produced such big fights in a number of years.
White, however, seems to completely dismiss the reality of Showtime’s boxing shows over the past year which has likely allowed the PBC to draw the bulk of interest towards their fights as evident by Espinoza’s claims of the gate receipts.
White’s rant further illustrates his extreme bias against the boxing industry, as he refuses to acknowledge that boxing remains a profitable sport. To illustrate this point, UFC fighter Conor McGregor notably had a career-high payday when he faced Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his first professional match on 26th of August in 2017.
Moreover, UFC has long been dealing with rumors surrounding their inability or refusal to pay fighters which has led to several public disputes, most prominently former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou leaving the company to join up with a rival MMA prmotion in Professional Fighters League (PFL). Ngannou is also set to prepare himself for an exhibition fight with reigning WBC champion Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia where he will receive his highest career payday.
Most recently, Sean O’Malley also seemed drawn to the sport of boxing after expressing interest in fighting Gervonta Davis, and plenty of other MMA fighters have already delved into the sport, presumably to challenge themselves in another combat sports, but there have also been cases where other fighters have earned more money in boxing fights; most significantly in the case of former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley who fought Jake Paul twice in two highly-spectated bouts.
White’s rant does not absolve his own responsibiities as it pertains to his fighters’ salaries and the profit the company is making, and it failed to truly substantiate on how Espinoza was a failure. Dana White’s inclination to resort to childish insults has only highlighted his failures in terms of increasing profits for the UFC, similar to other successful boxing promotions, and adequately compensating his fighters, on par with top-tier boxers.
Throughout this conflict, it’s important to note that there has been no official confirmation that Showtime will be discontinuing their boxing programs, which they co-host with the PBC. However, there have been significant reports suggesting that this possibility is being considered. However, nothing has as of yet been confirmed, and thus the news of Showtime or Paramount+ removing boxing from their programs should be taken with a pinch of salt unless official reports indicate otherwise.
