Even UFC President Dana White is impressed with the drawing power of IBF, IBO, WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs).
As reported in recent weeks, White is planning to get involved in the sport of boxing in 2018. White has already scheduled a few big meetings where he plans to sit down with different key figures in the sport of boxing.
His company was part of the biggest boxing event of the year, when UFC superstar Conor McGregor made his professional boxing debut against returning Floyd Mayweather Jr. back in August at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Mayweather stopped McGregor in the tenth round of a pay-per-view event that generated 4 million buys on pay-per-view.
White's boxing company - Zuffa Boxing - will be run under the umbrella of the UFC's parent company WME-IMG.
The UFC executive views Joshua, who is promoted by Eddie Hearn of Matchroom, as the biggest star in boxing and he would love to get the opportunity to work with him.
“In my opinion, he’s the most marketable guy in boxing,” White said.
White has not revealed the exact plans or strategy of what he intends to do in the sport.
“Right now, I have two different plans,” said White. “I have a Plan A and a Plan B. And I’m not sure which I’m gonna go with. But I’m gonna sit down, I’m gonna talk to everybody in the industry. They all want to come out here, they all want to talk. Fighters want to come out here and talk. So many people. So I’m gonna take like a month at the beginning of the year and just focus on this thing and see what we’re gonna do.”
“I think that right now is the right time. I just feel it. I feel like it’s the right time. Listen, can I do it? I don’t know. Will it work? I don’t know. But I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how to make it work. And I’ll give it a shot.”
But one thing White did, is rule out the idea of doing more cross-sports fights like Mayweather-McGregor.
“That’s not what I’m looking to do; I’m looking (to promote) boxing and UFC,” White said.