Dana White was involved in an awkward exchange with Turki Alalshikh on Thursday night but has now explained his big announcement
Dana White has revealed two $100,000 bonuses will be up for grabs for fighters on the Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford undercard.
UFC CEO White is promoting his first boxing event this weekend as Alvarez puts his four super-middleweight world titles – and his undisputed crown – on the line in Las Vegas. And during a press conference to promote the fight, White was urged by Saudi Arabian boxing chief Turki Alalshikh to make an announcement.
“There is a big surprise from Dana White, he will announce it now,” said Alalshikh, but White opted instead to move on to the face-offs, saying: “Thanks for coming out tonight everybody, we’re going to face these guys off for photo opps, we’ll see you at the weigh-ins,” he said before talking to Alalshikh.
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Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez defends his super middleweight title against Terence Crawford this weekend.
The fight will air live from Las Vegas in the early hours of September 14 exclusively on Netflix, which is included free with Sky’s £15 Essential TV package.
White has now cleared up the confusion and has revealed fighters on the undercard will be eligible for two bonuses, similar to those he introduced to the UFC.
“The opportunity wasn’t there during the press conference so I’ll announce it right here,” he said. “On the undercard – Canelo and Crawford are going to do just fine – but on the undercard, we’re going to have a Performance of the Night and a Fight of the Night, $100,000 each for the fighters on the undercard. So you can be involved in the performance of the night and the fight of the night and take home $200,000.”
Earlier at the press conference, Alvarez took issue with host Max Kellerman’s claim that White was going to take boxing to the next level. “Dana White is the greatest combat sports promoter in my lifetime,” Kellerman declared. “He built an institution. You know why boxing’s not as popular as it used to be anymore, right? UFC is really popular.
“That’s because of Dana White.He built something like the NBA. He’s about to do it for boxing again, for boxing now. You want an NBA or an NFL in boxing? Here it comes. Because he knows how to build an institution. And how do you do that?…”
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Alvarez interrupted Kellerman, contending: “Hey, Max… Boxing is always bigger and bigger and big. Don’t say boxing is not big enough. Boxing is big. You know how big is boxing..”
Kellerman persisted, enquiring: “Should it get bigger, yes or no? Should it get bigger, Canelo?” Alvarez retorted: “Maybe it’s going to be bigger, but look, boxing is always big and big and bigger and bigger and bigger. We need to talk about that too. How big is boxing? Boxing is boxing.”
Crawford then interjected with: “No lies”, before Alvarez concluded: “There is no comparison. Respect for other sports, great job on everything, but boxing is boxing.”