Despite working together in 2017, Ultimate Fighting Championship chief Dana
White and Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza are anything but
friends.
On Tuesday, following the eighth episode on the 2023 season of
Dana White’s Contender Series, White conducted
a post-fight
press conference to discuss various matters from the bouts that
night to current events around combat sports. Among the many topics
included a rumor that came about on social media regarding
Showtime’s future in boxing, specifically that Showtime would be
getting out of the boxing business after 2024. White was not
surprised.
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“That’s incredibly unfortunate,” White remarked while wearing a wry
grin. “Production of that show is fantastic, the guy who runs
Showtime Boxing is a great human being…it’s unfortunate to hear
this. F— Espinoza, and it’s about time that sh–ty product is off
the air.”
The President of Showtime Sports was not about to let that slide,
although his response was not directly targeted at White in
particular and rather the product in which White helms. At the
press conference
of “Canelo” Alvarez and Jermell Charlo on Wednesday, Espinoza took
a swipe at the UFC while opining on the successes of Showtime
Boxing over the years.
“Calling ‘Canelo’ vs. Charlo a ‘fight’ is like calling filet mignon
‘meat,’” the Showtime head suggested. “It’s like calling Lebron
James a ‘basketball player,’ calling ‘The Godfather’ just a movie.
This is special, this is different. When you drive down the street,
you see a lot of cars, and there are cars and then there are
Bugattis, there are Lamborghinis, there are Koenigseggs. Not all of
them are the same, not all of boxing is the same, not all of combat
sports is the same. No, what we’re doing here on Saturday night,
what’s been going on all year [for Showtime Boxing] is special,
it’s different, it’s not the same old boxing. It’s not like the
others, and no disrespect to anyone, but there are levels to this.
And what we’re doing here is the highest level of the sport.”
Espinoza continued, “The event on Saturday night will generate a
gate of over $20 million. That’s a rare feat in combat sports. It’s
rare in concerts or events of any kind. But this will be the third
time in the last six months that we’ve done a gate of $20
million…to put that in perspective, UFC has never done a gate of
$20 million in its entire history. We’ve done it three times since
April.”
Within a few hours, White got the message and fired another shot
across the bow, this one even more hostile than his first statement
at the DWCS presser. On his Instagram
Stories Wednesday night, White posted a scathing response to
Espinoza. His post in full reads as follows:
“That’s exactly the type of response I would expect from that
Weasel Espinoza. That scumbag has absolutely nothing to do with the
success of Canelo, Ryan Garcia, and Terrence Crawford. Those guys
are mega stars and they are the ones responsible for driving the
dates in their fights. For him to even try and take any credit at
all shows you exactly what an arrogant, delusional POS that guy
is.
“For this clown to talk about ‘levels’ is hilarious. The production
of the fights on Showtime is an embarrassment and I have been
saying that FOREVER. He is a little guy with a BIG yap, and is a
complete phony. I’m not at all surprised this is the end of them.
It should have come way sooner. Sorry to see you go Weasel, enjoy
your retirement. – Dana White.”
There has not yet been a response from Showtime or its executive,
as the organization is preparing for the blockbuster boxing event
on Sept. 30 in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. Atop that card,
Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) will put his undisputed super middleweight
titles (IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO) on the line against Charlo (35-1-1, 19
KOs). While “Canelo” will be the champion defending at 168 pounds,
Charlo is moving up two divisions as the undisputed junior
middleweight champ, in what will be the first matchup between
undisputed beltholders in the four-belt era.