As Dana White moves forward with his venture into boxing next year, he is keen to dispute what he sees as the ‘myth’ of a chasm-like difference in payment models between that sport and mixed martial arts. 

There’s little denying that boxing is in a bountiful phase at the moment, much (or most) of which is being funded by Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority which has seen a cavalcade of high profile fights taking place in the Middle East and, more recently, London as combat sports benefactor Turki Alalshikh continues to bankroll boxing.

The UFC’s payment model has come into question in recent months, particularly after former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou left the organisation a couple of years ago upon the expiration of his contract — after which he signed a big money deal with the PFL, as well as taking on two high profile boxing fights against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

But speaking to the media, including The Mac Life, in Las Vegas on Tuesday, White was quite to dispute claims that boxing is on another financial level to the UFC.

“That’s not necessarily true,” White said, addressing a question from reporter Kevin Iole as noted by MMA Fighting.

“That’s the bullshit publicly that people believe, but that’s not the truth. Total bullsh*t. Total bullsh*t,” he added.

“That’s that whole myth that makes everybody go, ‘Oh, let’s f*cking go to boxing!’ and all this bullshit. Boxing don’t work. Boxing does not work. What makes it work? You need a Saudi f*cking trillionaire to make f*cking fights. And even Saudi trillionaires get tired of the f*cking bullshit. It’s all a f*cking myth. It’s all a myth.

“Like the whole statement you just made is absolutely positively not true. It’s those types of f*cking statements and those type of quotes by the media that makes all this shit. All these fights are happening, it takes a Saudi f*cking trillionaire. Every f*cking guy that tries to do the boxing thing, they all end up losing shit-loads of f*cking money. The model doesn’t work. A Saudi unlimited amount of money pops up and that’s what makes these fights happen, and even guys with that kind of money get f*cking tired of the bullshit.”

White also disputed claims that Ngannou made more bank in his two boxing fights — the reported figure was around $30 million — than he was offered to extend his UFC deal — which was reported in the media as $8 million.

“I know all the sh*t that you people don’t know, and I don’t care what everybody says,” the UFC boss said. “It doesn’t matter to me. But that’s a fact. He was offered more money, because I know the real numbers.”