Canelo Alvarez defeated Daniel Jacobs last night in Las Vegas, and during any big fight week in the city, there is sure to be a lot of action going on behind the scenes. Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, who promotes Jacobs, was in town making the rounds and created a stir with a certain individual he crossed paths with.
Hearn was inside of the UFC’s Performance Institute, where Jacobs was finishing up his training, and a photo circulated of himself with UFC president Dana White. Immediately fans began speculating about the two men crossing over, and mulling a fight between heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
White has been speculating about jumping into the boxing business for quite some time now, yet nothing has materialized as of yet.
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Last year, White confirmed he was looking to sign some boxers.
“I am getting into boxing, 100 per-cent,” White told the LA Times. “It’s still early. We’re still working on it. I’ve got to get my [stuff] together, but I’m getting into boxing, man. It’s coming.”
White was a big part of the huge Boxing/UFC crossover fight between longtime pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather and UFC megastar Conor McGregor in August of 2017. That fight generated over four million pay per view buys and White feels that he can be a player in boxing and even raise the bar.
“We still have to get some homework done,” said White. “I feel like I can do it better than everyone else. I love the sport.”
White insisted that the Performance Institute could be used as a haven for any of his fighters.
“We’re the best,” said White. “We’re the best at what we do. We think about the future. If you look at this facility that we’re in now (the UFC Performance Institute), a state-of-the-art facility with every piece of equipment you can think about as far as recovery, getting stronger. We have a restaurant here that they eat at every day for free, costs nothing for the fighters to come here and do all this stuff. Plus, we have a physical therapy centre where all the fighters can come in and get physical therapy for free.”
White has been eyeing how boxing runs for quite some time, as the Boxing vs. MMA angle is one often used by fans.
“On top of, I think we do our events better than they do, our production is better than the production that’s out there,” White stated. “I think everything in this business that you could possibly do, we do better, and we have health insurance for our fighters.”
But what about Joshua vs. Jones in the future? Joshua has to get past Andy Ruiz Jr. On June 1st first, and after that, maybe the doors could open. Curious to see what kind of fight it might be, a match with hybrid boxing/mma rules, or if Jones would be willing to come over to boxing full-time. Either way White looks to be making some noise soon.
