Dana White konstaterade häromdagen att han aldrig mer vill samarbeta med ’Showtime’ efter anordnandet av matchen mellan Floyd Mayweather och Conor McGregor, samt att han anklagade bolaget för att ha presenterat oriktiga siffror gällande PPV för evenemanget. Showtimes VD Stephen Espinoza svarade då med att de känner sig oskyldigt anklagade för att gått ut med sanningen om siffrorna, som då endast rörde Nordamerika.
Nu har även den kända boxningsförespåkaren Bob Arum givit White svar på tal, samt kritik mot UFC, som han menar är ett ’sjunkande skepp’.
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.@trboxing CEO @BobArum responds to Dana White & says the #UFC is ”cratering,” pointing to struggling TV ratings and PPV numbers & says that the myth, that Dana sometimes repeats, that the UFC caters to a younger crowd than #boxing does is simply false. https://t.co/HnbGQEOseR pic.twitter.com/ng48AcDCJ9
— SiriusXM Boxing (@SiriusXMBoxing) January 6, 2018
Via SiriusXMBoxing:
A lot of what [Dana White] says is inconsistencies but I don’t want to take it apart piece by piece. What’s really happening is the UFC is cratering. You look at the ratings they’re getting and you look at their pay-per-view business, which is way down. Why? Because they don’t have the marquee stars that they had before. Because the UFC model is to keep the money for itself and not pay the fights the way people in boxing pay the fighters, which is a major part of the revenue. So really, he has a real problem getting a deal that will justify the $4.5 billion price that they sold UFC for and neither FOX or anyone else will come close to that price.
You see, a lot of business is built on myths. You’ve heard the myths for years and in fact he repeats it, that UFC caters to a much younger audience than boxing. We looked at the numbers and when fights were on HBO and SHOWTIME, he was correct. That the audience skewed old, but that wasn’t because the sport, it was because young people couldn’t afford the monthly fee required for HBO and SHOWTIME. When we went to ESPN where their wasn’t a monthly fee, we were blown away. We were up against [the UFC]. Not only did we do many more people, but in the age demographic 18-35 and then 18-49, we did two-and-a-half times the number that they did on their programming. […] Once we were free television on ESPN against their free television on FOX and FS1, it was no contest.
