Slap fighting is perhaps the most controversial combat sport in the world. The sport, which involves two participants taking turns to slap each other as hard as possible to try and knock each other out, has been flagged by medical professionals and critics as putting participants at great risk of regularly getting concussed and suffering long-term brain damage as a result of it.

But Dana White, being the visionary that he is, has decided to go all-in on the sport and started ‘Power Slap’, America’s first slap-fighting promotion, despite the almost universal criticism it has invited. And while the sport is controversial and ridiculed among fans in its comments section, its clips have gone viral on social media. And the UFC CEO has claimed that despite the negativity, Power Slap currently stands at a $750 million valuation today, 250 times the seed investment he and the Fertitta brothers had made in it.

Dana White explains the runaway success of Power Slap

Speaking to comedian and actor Sebastian Maniscalco on the latter’s YouTube channel, the UFC CEO revealed that he had started Power Slap with one-million dollar investments each from himself and Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta (who, along with White, had acquired UFC in 2001 as Zuffa LLC). Over the past year, the business has grown significantly, and according to the Power Slap founder, it is worth $750 million today.

“You know the original guys; the Fertita brothers were my partners in the UFC. We sold in 2016 to Endeavor, so my go-to guys I said ‘hey, I got another idea. you guys want to do this?’ And they’re like ‘yeah, we’re in.’ So we all gotta pony up a million bucks each and get this thing started. That was 13 months ago; it’s a $750 million business [today].”

Dana White also spoke about how he got the idea for starting Power Slap. The Las Vegas resident recounted watching Slap Fighting videos from Eastern Europe and Russia a few years ago, each of which had hundreds of millions of views.

This popularity convinced him that the sport had a lot of potential. White felt that if he could organize it with high production value and official sanctioning from Athletic Commissions, it could emerge as a popular sport as UFC had a few decades ago.

White claims Power Slap is bigger than the NHL, PGA, and NASCAR

White also claimed that the numbers of Power Slap, at least on social media, were “bigger than the NHL; it’s bigger than the PGA and NASCAR; we’re about to pass MLB as far as [social media] numbers go.” And just like the UFC, which was considered a barbaric, uncouth sport two decades ago, when White and the Fertittas took it over, White claimed that all of the hate for the sport had made the success of the sport much sweeter.

“It got so much negativity here in the United States; it was incredible. I loved the negativity. There’s 8 billion people on earth, and this thing became a global sport overnight,” he said. And the negativity has been a constant theme of the sport. Most fight fans even refuse to consider it a serious sport, claiming it doesn’t require any real skills since participants cannot defend themselves in any way.

But the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. And if White’s (unverified) claims are to be believed, the sport is already bigger than many major sports, at least online. What are your thoughts on Dana White’s claims?