Zuffa Boxing’s first event on the road saw a packed night of fights play out in front of a raucous crowd at the Bournemouth (England) International Centre with the main event between local hero Chris "CBS" Billam-Smith and Canada's Ryan Rozicki delivering an exciting fight on the English South Coast. After the event, Dana White chatted to reporters backstage at the Zuffa Boxing 07 post-fight press conference. Here’s our recap of the key talking points as he recapped a successful first show in the United Kingdom. The main event produced a barnburner that ended in victory for Billam-Smith when Rozicki’s corner pulled him out before the start of round eight. White said he knew the main event would deliver, but he was blown away by what he saw in the ring. “The first time I ever met Rozicki, I was like, ‘Jesus, this guy's like the meanest Canadian I think I've ever met!’... What a hell of a fight. An incredible fight (card) from top to bottom, but the main event was like a Rocky movie.”
White later added, “We thought it was going to be a great fight. Obviously, we know how talented CBS is, and we knew going in how tough and mean Rozicki was. So it had all the makings of a great fight… Was I surprised to see him come back out (after round six)? No. But I was happy to see his corner call the fight (after round seven)? I mean, that's the right move. Great stoppage. And yeah, listen, Rozicki – we flew him out to Vegas, and I met him at one of the Zuffa Boxing matches. All you gotta do is talk to that kid for like 30 seconds, and you're like, ‘God damn, this is a tough, mean kid.’ So, yeah, I couldn't see him quitting.”
After such a grueling main event battle, there was understandable concern over the condition of both fighters, and White revealed that he had put measures in place to get both fighters to the hospital as swiftly as possible after the fight, with both fighters not available for post-fight interviews in the ring following the fight. “I don't play with that kind of stuff,” he said. “The fight wasn't even over yet, and I got my guy, Dave Lewis, and I said, ‘No interviews, no nothing. I want both these guys to go straight to the hospital, and if you know if there's anything even remotely serious for either guy, I want them both medevac’d back to London.’ No disrespect to Bournemouth, but I'd rather have them in London if there's anything serious. In 30 years of the UFC, there's never been a death or serious injury, and it's important to me to keep that run alive. Especially with boxing, a lot more traumatic brain injury things happen in the sport of boxing than they do in MMA, so I'm crazy about the health and safety side.”
Zuffa Boxing 07 marked the occasion of the first event on the road for the organization, and White said that he’s looking forward to unveiling more big news in the coming weeks. “I’ve been saying to everybody. January 1st, judge us on the work that we did this year,” he said. “We're going to continue. We've got a lot of big announcements coming up over the next month, so you can expect lots of big things coming from us.”
He continued, “What starts to happen is as we rip the sport apart (and) start to build from the ground up with nights like tonight, it starts to create all these different storylines and starts to line up different fights, and the fans and the media start to talk about what they want to see next… We have a Sky (Sports) deal, which is a very big deal to us, so we'll be in the UK a lot. And already this year in the United States, we're going to be adding more fights to Paramount. We're five months into this thing, and we're already adding more shows on our Paramount deal, and I hope the same thing happens with Sky.”
White said that his focus is on ensuring that, wherever Zuffa fights take place, and whoever’s on the card, the fans go home happy after watching the action play out. "I want to put on great fights,” he stated. “When we go to a place, and people buy tickets and come in live, and when people watch on TV, I want them to turn their television off or walk out of the arena that night, going, ‘God, I'm glad I came to the fights’ … I want to build trust back up with the fans that, when we roll into town, or we're on TV on Saturday night, or Sunday, or whenever we're on, we're gonna deliver great matchmaking. And obviously the UK is so different. I mean, I tell people all the time, you have to see it live – anything! Live sporting events in the UK – not just our stuff. But the UK fans are different. It's awesome.”
White has spoken before about the UK fans, and the electric atmosphere they have generated at events – including big UFC events – down the years. And he reiterated that thought as he responded to another great British crowd. “I say it all the time, there is nothing like watching a sporting event in the UK,” he enthused. “The UK is different. The fans are different over here. It's so much fun. I always try to tell people, you have to see anything in the UK. You could probably watch ping pong over here, and it would be incredible. It's fun!”
Much has been written and spoken about competition within the combat sports space, but when it comes to competition, White said he’s viewing the major US sporting leagues as his true competition. “It's a different level, you know?” he said. “Without sounding too arrogant, people always ask me about, ‘Oh, you're competing with this guy…’ Right now, at the level that we're at, we're competing with the NFL, we're competing with the NBA, we're competing with Major League Baseball, and with the NHL. In the United States, the powerhouse over there that is the NFL, and I'm sure when the NFL, when they were sitting in their executive offices and they saw the deal that we got with Paramount, they had to be thinking, ‘Wait a minute. There was $8 billion sitting over at Paramount that we didn’t get? We’ll start putting games on on Tuesdays…’ And when you go outside the United States, you start competing with soccer. So when I think about my competition, those are the people I’m looking at as competition these days. Watch the announcements that we make over the next month and then, like I said, judge us January 1 at the end of this year, beginning of next year, on how we've done this year.
“Tonight was a great … The UK runs boxing right now. Boxing has become a very European sport over the last 15-20 years, and the UK has dominated boxing. So for us to come into the UK and put on an event like tonight, we’re pretty pumped.”
A number of notable names from the sport of boxing were in attendance in Bournemouth for the event, including fighters who currently aren’t signed to Zuffa Boxing. When asked if that suggested that White could be on the verge of making more signings, he made clear that the roster-building at Zuffa Boxing is well underway, and is showing no sign of abating. “Well, obviously I'm honored that a lot of these guys showed up to watch our event tonight,” he said. “My goal over the next couple of years is to have everybody. Everybody.”
White was asked about plans for more big events following the upcoming UFC (mixed martial arts show) Freedom 250 event at the White House, and he took the opportunity to explain the main factors that inform his decision-making. “I went to the sphere and saw U2, and while I was there during the concert, I said ‘I have to do a fight here,’” he said. “And then obviously the White House wasn't my idea, but I said yes to it.
“I'm never looking for crazy venues to put on fights. I like good venues. I like places where everybody who's there can see well, the sound is good, it's an updated arena. I'm always looking for the best live fan experience possible. And even with the White House, which obviously isn't equipped to put on big events like that, we're spending a lot of money to make sure that it's a good experience, live and on television.”
With the UFC well established in the UK, and more Zuffa Boxing events on the way, could the UK become a viable option for the next UFC Performance Institute? That question was posed to White at the end of the press conference, and he admitted that the idea has some merit. “Great question. The answer to that is probably yes,” he said. “No, we haven't worked toward it or doing it, but it's time. You're absolutely right.”
