UFC CEO Dana White’s controversial Power Slap league is headed to a new platform.
After reaching a deal with the conservative-leaning video platform Rumble for its first 11 fight cards, Power Slap 12 will shift to YouTube for its event on Friday.
According to a report in Sports Business Journal, Power Slap will not be receiving a media rights fee from YouTube as it did with Rumble. Forbes reports Rumble paid the upstart fighting league $30 million per year for exclusive broadcast rights.
Instead, Power Slap has inked a six year, $76 million deal with the blockchain platform VeChain to become the naming rights sponsor for the league’s events. The VeChain deal alone would amount to about half the media rights fee that Rumble was paying, though White tells Forbes that two other sponsorship-style deals are in the works that would bring the total revenue above $35 million annually.
White says that while Power Slap had offers from three linear cable channels, which he declined to name, he opted to place the product on YouTube in order to maximize its reach. “At the end of the day, this thing was built on the internet,” White said, per Forbes. “I already know the sport works; now it’s about delivering it to as many eyeballs as possible.”
Just two years ago, TBS found itself marred in controversy after airing Power Slap, facing widespread criticism about safety concerns of the league. The network stopped airing the slap fighting league after just eight episodes.
“I don’t sit around and f***ing wait for anyone or anything,” White said, courtesy of Sports Business Journal. “I believe in Power Slap, I’ve seen how it performs, I know what it can do, so we go out and we just f***ing make s*** happen. We went out and did our own rights deal, and we’re going to do it ourselves.”