The Dana White‘s Power Slap League seems to be going strong after all. What started as a highly criticized and much-debated topic amongst spectators of the sport, now is increasingly gaining traction in terms of audience numbers and is expected to culminate in a live pay-per-view event very soon.
Per reports, the crowning event will go down at the UFC Apex in Vegas on March 11th and different weight classes will see their finalists duke it out. The four divisions currently expected to compete are Welterweight, Middleweight, Light-heavyweight, and Heavyweight.
Borrowing a page from ‘TUF’ coaches Darius ‘The Destroyer’ Mata-Varona and ‘Wolverine’ Ron Bata will compete for the heavyweight title.
Power slap is insane.
Would you participate if the bag is right? pic.twitter.com/Kr3qYo6Zo0
— Is that a Real Question, RICAN?🇨🇷 (@richcoastrican) January 26, 2023
What does Dana White‘s Power Slap League tell us about the fans?
We have to remember, at the height of criticism, Power Slap League debuted with an audience of 295,000 only which is meagerly considering how big UFC is. Some photos of slappers’ brutally mutilated faces surfaced online and fans became even more hostile toward the new promotion. Moreover, Dana White getting into a slap fight with his wife at the start of the year didn’t help either.
But all this talk and by the time the second week comes up, viewership is already up at around 413,000. While the numbers are still nothing to go crazy about, a worrying rise in the number of willing viewers can be noticed. In the meantime, fighter pay advocates got a new topic to get angry about as former middleweight fighter Eric Spicely revealed a $2000 to win and $2000 to show offer he got for the league.
All these incidents tell us that despite the backlash from a seemingly huge group of people, there is also a dedicated audience who takes pleasure in witnessing such freak shows. Dana being the businessman he is, capitalized on the madness and will probably start profiting by the time March 11 comes around.
