LAS VEGAS – The Power Slap promotion defended by the UFC CEO Dana White got a big boost last Friday.
When the former UFC fighter Paige VanZant made her slap debut in Las Vegas, she became arguably the most popular social media figure to compete in the promotion. VanZant landed cleaner shots in three rounds and beat Christine Wolmarans by a trio of 30-25 unanimous decisions at the Fontainebleau Hotel & Casino.
VanZant’s popularity on OnlyFans, as well as other social media platforms, as well as in fights for BKFC, has made her something of a celebrity slap, and White thinks it’s another rung on the ladder to making Power Slap potentially bigger than the UFC over time, he said.
“I said it – come back. Some of you were there and listened to me in the early days,” White said after Power Slap 8. “I said, ‘This is going to be the biggest sport in the world. This will be bigger than the UFC. This will be bigger than the UFC. Now you might remember I said that, everyone’s going to be like, ‘Oh, he’s crazy,’ and all that shit. And then we’ll see you in a few years and talk again.
“This is one of those events – it’s like the UFC all over again. When we do a live event, no one leaves the UFC live event and says, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to see one of those again.’ It’s the same thing with Power Slap. It continues to grow. This was our eighth event. We only did eight events. And if you look at the success of this thing and just eight shows, we’re going to get better every time we do this. Athletes will improve. There will be people who will continue drawing and will want to see Slap. It’s all just a huge work in progress. It’s going to get better every time we do it.”
White thinks someone like VanZant, who has more than 3 million Instagram followers, can help raise the bar, whether through participation or competition. Since leaving the UFC, VanZant has been known for her popularity as a social media influencer as much as her combat sports activities, if not more, and she has spoken openly about making more money in 24 hours on OnlyFans than she did when she was in the UFC. .
White is banking on social media to attract new fans, not traditional media.
“It’s like all the slap fighters against the world,” White said. “Everyone is talking shit on the internet and writing bad stories and everything. I tell these guys, ‘Fuck, embrace it. It’s beautiful. It’s a great thing. You know what you don’t want? The guys who don’t write stories and don’t say anything about it. We are building this sport in a completely different way and it is not built by the media. We are not building this sport through the media. This is the future of how sports will be built, and I’m showing the whole world how it’s done.
“Everyone you bring in, especially someone who already has a certain level of fame and a certain level of followers, you bring new people into that. There’s no doubt about that. Tonight, in that room, the most powerful influencers in the world are in that room every time we host an event. These kids create content to make a living. That’s what they do, and nothing goes more viral, no matter who you are, how many followers you have (than Power Slap).
