Despite one marquee event – the Canelo-Crawford showdown – and two shows under the new Paramount deal, Zuffa could still be considered a novice by boxing standards. Next week, Dana White’s boxing promotion is slated to showcase its third installment, followed by a March card that will be headlined by Zuffa’s biggest prize catch so far, Jai Opetaia.

By most measures, it’s a slow build in a landscape dominated by legacy sanctioning bodies and promoters. Yet, despite the traction Dana White and his team have been gaining, skepticism lingers, particularly around the long-running fighter-payout debate. Even some boxing legends, like Roy Jones Jr., have pointed to the income disparity between MMA fighters and boxers, something that may not bode well for boxing over time.

Roy Jones Jr. sounds off on Dana White’s Zuffa entry

During an interview with Fight Hub TV, the icon said White and Zuffa might fix some long-standing issues, though he added that only certain areas would benefit from their presence. Overall, Jones Jr. believes Zuffa could do more harm than good for boxing.

His comments focused on the contentious issue of fighter pay. Like many others, Jones Jr. believes that when UFC fighters learn about the purses boxers earn under Zuffa, it is bound to cause serious friction. “You got UFC already, and your guys leave UFC and make more money in boxing in one night than they make in their whole career in UFC; that’s a problem,” he said.

In his view, Dana White should first improve conditions and payouts in MMA rather than importing that business model into boxing. Concerned that Zuffa could lower boxing’s earning power, he warned against bringing the UFC-style pay structure into boxing, noting that boxing has traditionally paid elite fighters far more.

“I don’t want that. Why would I want that? I’m crazy if I go for that,” Jones Jr. concluded. To many who saw his interview, his words echoed comments made by Eddie Hearn months earlier. Not a fan of Dana White himself, the English promoter, who has a history of online back-and-forths with the UFC boss, argued that the payout gap could spark unrest inside the promotion.

White and Zuffa under the microscope over pay – too early to tell?

“I think one of the really interesting things when I look at the business is going to be how the UFC talent roster reacts to the amount of money that these guys are paying fighters,” Hearn said a few weeks ago, around the time Zuffa Boxing 01 was set to debut just ahead of the Paddy Pimblett-Justin Gaethje headliner at UFC 324.

That UFC event gave Hearn material to sharpen his case about potential paydays for fighters appearing on Zuffa cards. “Paramount is paying huge license fees. Yet Paddy and Justin are making considerably less than a fighter who is nowhere near the draw or bringing in nowhere near the commercial revenue that they are.”

Jones Jr. and Hearn’s arguments carry added weight in light of the multi-million-dollar antitrust lawsuit UFC faced last year.

From White and his team’s perspective, however, the picture is not entirely bleak. White has already spoken about MMA fighters possibly seeing an increase under the new Paramount partnership. More significantly, the reality is that this is only the beginning. White and his team are unlikely to ignore money-related concerns.

They may already be mapping out ways to strike a balance. It might not happen overnight, but changes could arrive down the line. Even rivals such as Jake Paul’s MVP have taken notice of how Zuffa could reshape the boxing landscape through consistent scheduling. Fans will have to follow closely as events unfold before deciding whether Zuffa ultimately proves good or bad for the sport.