The decade-long conflict between Dana White and Paulie Malignaggi has been well-documented, although the former champion has turned up the heat in his latest rant.
Last week, UFC CEO Dana White sent shockwaves through the combat sports world when he announced the creation of a new boxing league in partnership with Turki Alalshikh.
The suggestion is that TKO Boxing won’t work with other boxing federations or promotions when it comes to contracts and rankings – prompting former world champion Paulie Malignaggi to go ‘scorched Earth’.
Paulie Malignaggi shreds Dana White’s new boxing venture
In a video posted to the ProBoxTV YouTube channel, Malignaggi launched a 20-minute-long rant about Dana White and his new boxing venture – specifically taking issue with the theory that fighters will be ‘blocked into’ competing under one banner.
“Here’s why I think he’s being deceptive with the league. In MMA, he’s the one who brought that WWF type of league where if you signed to the contract, you are blocked in – you can’t fight fighters from outside that promotion.
“If you remember back far enough, MMA was open… It was an open market like boxing, meaning you have your promotional stable entity, but you can fight fighters from other promotional entities.”
Malignaggi argued that an open market provides the chance for cross-promotional super-fights to come together; and that White’s stance on going solo will essentially obstruct such matchups from being made in the future.
“Now, just because MMA fans are a little bit of a lower IQ on the totem pole and they don’t get that part, doesn’t mean that those other fighters don’t exist… I wouldn’t be surprised if the fighters that he signed to these contracts have no allowance at all; that they cannot be in any [other] rankings.
“The TKO promotion will have its own rankings, its own belt, and if you do that, you are creating a league – no matter how much you want to play on words.”
Paulie Malignaggi continues taking swipes at MMA fans
Malignaggi certainly isn’t the only boxing legend who is unhappy about White’s new venture, with the likes of Oscar De La Hoya admitting he was offended by part of the TKO Boxing announcement.
“That’s what I mean about the deceptiveness of this guy [and] not just because MMA fans don’t have the intelligence to figure it out,” continued the former world champion.
“They have never had it because a guy’s a known liar for years, doesn’t mean boxing fans are also this stupid… We know promoters lie, even promoters like Bob Arum.
“In boxing, we know promoters lie [but] in MMA when Dana says something, the fans are dumb enough to believe everything he says – even if they know he’s been lying the past 20 times in a row.”
According to reports online, the first TKO Boxing event won’t happen until 2026, meaning that there’s plenty of time for concerns to be quelled; what do you think of Malignaggi’s take?
