UFC president Dana White had a rocky start to 2023. The 53-year-old kick-started the year with a huge controversy regarding the altercation with his wife on New Year’s eve. His bad luck carried on further into 2023 as his novel venture ‘Power Slap’ debuted to less than encouraging numbers.

To add to the misfortune, White received even more backlash after the UFC parted ways with former champion Francis Ngannou. The Cameroonian’s exit enraged the ongoing conversations about fighter pay and rights.

However, White steadily maintained his course and took some of these shots on the chin. The UFC head honcho has been single-mindedly going forward with Power Slap. Recently, he appeared at a press conference before the maiden Power Slap season’s finale. During the event, White admitted that some of the controversy surrounding him might have affected Power Slap’s viewership numbers.

Dana White on Power Slap suffering from his controversy

During the press conference, White laid out some of the planning that happened behind the scenes for Power Slap. He said, “We were literally flying to Abu Dhabi. And Lorenzo and I and a few guys were involved in this. We were going through the business plan for this thing and how we were going to do this and that and everything else.”

He continued, “And then we said maybe we put it on TV and then we build the social and digital plan around it and then it’s a PPV at the end… We were back and forth on PPV… I didn’t know if we were going to do any views… “

He further added, “Let’s be honest. I didn’t do myself any favors on New Year’s eve. So if you look at all the things that were going on… it’s all a test. You’re testing all these different platforms in different ways for this to work.”

Furthermore, White also identified another demographic where Power Slap did good numbers. The UFC boss said that his Slap League was popular in bars, where a drunken audience preferred it over anything else.

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Despite disappointing numbers for multiple episodes, White seems confident in his slap promotion’s ability to outperform its competition and find success.

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What are your thoughts on White’s comments? Do you think the controversy affected the numbers? Or did the viewers not find it as interesting as the UFC? Let us know in the comments below.