Dana White stood in front of a conference room in New York and told people that Power Slap might become as big as the UFC. Power Slap is a sport where two humans take turns hitting each other in the face until someone falls down or quits. No defense. No footwork. Just open-palm strikes to the jaw while standing completely still.
The UFC president thinks this will rival mixed martial arts. Mixed martial arts took thirty years to become mainstream. It required rule changes, athletic commissions, network deals, and literally moving to a different country when American cable providers refused to air it. Power Slap has been around for less than two years and consists entirely of content that looks like it was filmed in a casino basement.
White also mentioned boxing as part of UFC's future. Boxing is currently run by approximately forty-seven different sanctioning bodies that nobody can name and features champions who refuse to fight each other for years at a time. Perfect synergy.
The prediction came at something called the Game Plan conference. Conferences are where executives go to say things they would never put in an SEC filing. White could have said UFC's future includes competitive dog grooming and someone in that room would have written it down.
Retail traders heard this news and immediately started Googling whether there's a way to buy Power Slap stock. There is not. Because it's owned by UFC. Which is owned by Endeavor Group Holdings. Which means you'd need to buy EDR and hope that approximately 0.003% of its revenue stream somehow moves the needle. But sure, chase that thesis.
White's vision is clear: take fighting, remove the fighting part, and monetize brain trauma as efficiently as possible. The future of combat sports is apparently two guys standing motionless while a referee counts to three between slaps. Might as well invest in a pay-per-view rock-paper-scissors league while you're at it.
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