UFC President Dana White believes Golden Boy Promotions and streaming service DAZN are crazy to go head to head with UFC 244 on November 2.
On that date, Golden Boy will be staging an event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where Canelo Alvarez will jump up by two weight divisions to challenge WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev.
On the other side of the United States, at Madison Square Garden in New York, Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz will clash in a welterweight contest for the Baddest Mother F***er championship - a title which the UFC will create for this particular fight.
UFC 244 will be carried by ESPN+ - the rival sports streaming service to DAZN.
White is fully confident that his event could seriously hurt the viewing audience of Canelo-Kovalev - should the two cards go head to head in the same time slot.
Last week, the UFC held an event on the same night as Tyson Fury vs. Otto Wallin - but both cards were handled by ESPN+, which carefully coordinated the cards in a manner where the main events did not go head to head.
“So, the night we started talking – we started talking about this date and that we were going to take this date, and then a week late I heard they were going to do that fight,” White said.
“I think they’re crazy to go the same night as us on DAZN, but it is what it is. But if they time it right, and they do this thing the right way, it could be very much like the other night when Gaethje fought Cowboy, and then the Fury fight was on after. So if they time it right, it could work out. But if they want to go head-to-head, they’re f***ing nuts.”
