Sport2 min(s) read
Published 19:34 08 Nov 2021 GMT
UFC President Dana White has been condemned online for being "disrespectful" after he was caught watching Saul "Canelo" Alvarez's boxing fight in Las Vegas - during a UFC 268 fight.
On Saturday night, an image began circulating online showing White watching the boxing on a cage-side monitor - namely, Canelo, as he cemented his position as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport by knocking out Caleb Plant.
The UFC chief, 52, was seen watching the Canelo fight while the UFC fight took place right in front of him in New York.
In focusing his attention on the boxing fight, he was essentially ignoring Rose Namajunas' victory over Weili Zhang in the women's strawweight title fight, which took place in the octagon at the same time as the boxing match.
White did, however, have his reasons for being distracted by the Canelo fight considering he had bet $100,000 on him to beat Plant.
He even shared a picture of his winning bet slip to his Instagram story on Saturday night, revealing he had received an extra $41,000 back from his $100,000 stake.
And during the post-fight press conference, White explained, per The Mirror: "I like Canelo I watched the fight and I bet $100,000 on Canelo to win by knockout, that is why I watched the fight."
However, YouTuber and boxer Jake Paul, who is a longtime critic of White, was not impressed.
Paul slammed the post, writing on Instagram: "Hey Dana White, how are you going to disrespect 'Thug Rose' like that? Congratulations champ."
And Paul certainly wasn't the only critic.
Another person tweeted: "Next time someone says 'boxing is dead', keep in mind that the UFC PRESIDENT was watching boxing on a small monitor, while he was 8 feet away from a strawweight Championship fight between two elite female fighters, happening right in front of his face."
Meanwhile, another person tweeted: "You'd never see Eddie Hearn do this, lots of MMA guys bash boxing and say it's dead but they're big fans of it, not so much the other way around though."
A fourth commenter shared: "Even Dana knows... boxing is better."
