ZUFFA SO FAR...

Don't really know about how good the fights are. I watched the Katzourakis vs Rodriguez fight on the Zuffa 6 card as the former guy is my countryman and that was pretty solid. I heard that Chris Billiam Smith's fight with the Jack Dempsey wannabe in Zuffa 7 was also pretty good.

But Zuffa itself can, and most likely will, eat a dick. Unless just about everybody signs (and they rightfully won't), it's doomed to fail. People are talking about how Zuffa's got Opetaia, Benn, Shakur, Hitchins and Santa Claus, but like, whatever. They could do Opetaia vs CBS, Shakur vs Hitchins and maybe have Benn fight the winner. That's about it. There are no fights to make. It's not as if they're gonna do anything with the rotting corpses of Gvozdyck, Derevyachenko and Martin.

I mean, their most stacked division with the most signings is Middleweight ffs

You know, the division where the top 4 consists of a PED cheat, a 43 year old, a Welterweight, and Carlos Adames. Quite possibly the worst that 160 has been since the 1880s, no exaggeration. Zuffa's best Middlewiehgts are Mosley jr, Katzourakis, Bohachuk and Walsh. Who gives a **** ?

What non 40 year old do they even have at 118, 126, 147 (Benn aside) and 175 ? I don't know any of those mfers. 135 only has Shakur and Hitchins, 160 has the guys I mentioned, CW has Opetaia and CBS, and HW only has Ejagba and this young Vanhouter guy. Plus 112 is ignored altogether.

Dana White is being a dumbass for thinking he's gonna monopolise something as historic, convoluted, messy and corrupt as Boxing with this toilet paper.

 

Aslong as Eddie, Warren, Oscar, Bob, Shalom et al are united together on Dazn and having their guys fight each other, Zuffa wont win.

 

Zuffa were never going to rocket to stardom overnight but they are on a steady, upward trajectory and have the likes of Eddie Hearn extremely concerned about the very real threat they pose.

 

At his press conference yesterday White reiterated his line that he "knows" where AJ vs Fury will be held and "never did I say it was going to be in Vegas."

What, is he going to stage this on the White House lawn....?

He also kept saying variations on "Judge us at the end of this year" and "Talk to me on Jan. 1, 2027," hinting there will be many surprises coming from Zuffa.

And of course for his part, Eddie keeps saying "The only way Dana White gets involved" in AJ-Fury "is if I let him."

Only Turki truly knows what's going on .... and seemingly holds the fate of boxing in his hands....

 

And he has also mentioned many times about the best fighting the best, so far that hasn't happened either

 

The central aspect of the threat boxing fans aren't getting is Zuffa's ability to corner off a fraction of the sport and convince normies that corner is the "major leagues". And to then marginalize the fighters not on their roster.

People are generally overestimating what Zuffa actually needs to get their hostile takeover done.

A site like this serves as a bubble leading us to overestimate the sophistication of the rank and file boxing/sports observer. This community won't be won over they don't need to be.

 

The more I think about it, the less surprised I'd be were Usyk to announce he's signing with Zuffa. He'd have some pretty clear reasons:

- He wants more $$ -- lots of it -- and conventional wisdom holds a fresh pathway to that would be greater US exposure.

- He wants to support his home country. While Europe has stepped up at least somewhat, US support remains important if not crucial. And White is tight likethis with Trump. Zelensky actually brought one of Usyk's belts (or at least a facsimile) to that ultimately ill-fated Oval Office meeting with Trump last year; the spat sparked by JD Vance eclipsed any press mention of Zelensky's gift to the White House.

I'm sure White envisions an Usyk fight in the US with Trump making a friendly appearance.

 

This week there will be a summit between Turki Alalshikh, Dana White and Eddie Hearn. From what has been leaked it seems the discussion will mainly focus on Fury-Joshua issues. I honestly hope Turki can bring some peace to the relationship between White and Hearn, and even more so that he can make White see reason. It makes no sense to wage war like this against other promoters and the four major boxing organizations, but who would prefer Opetaia-CBS to Opetaia-Benavidez?!?!?! (I say this with all due respect to CBS, which I admire greatly because it's a great warrior who puts everything into the ring. But with the example I gave I think my point is clear.)

 

I fear they might just buy Hearn out with a mountain of money. How Hearn handles this situation will be his everlasting legacy.

 

I'm confident things will turn out well, businessmen should know when it's worth living with people they can't stand. But I certainly can't rule out the possibility that your hypothesis might prove to be accurate. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. As a boxing fan I'm disappointed when interesting fights don't happen because of rich people acting up.

 

It took White no time to work out Hearn was a narcissist with a fragile ego and he has played Hearn like a windup toy ever since.

 

$$ talks and I'm sure Hearn, Warren and White will all fall in line (and/or step aside) to allow AJ-Fury to happen. And I sense AJ's ready to go if the $$ are there.

The biggest wild card IMHO remains Fury -- Mr. Wild Card himself. That of course and the ultimate wild card: training injury.....

 

in fairness, for 118 they did try to sign Bam.

but I’ve got an idea for them there. Sebastian Hernandez. He was beating up Nakatani and deserved a draw. I assume he could probably float between 118-126 based on how much water he cuts.

 

My girlfriend used to force me to do Zuffa classes, I effing hated it.