If there's any man on the face of the Earth that could make a combat sports league grow, it's Dana White. He carved the path to success for the UFC and is starting to do the same with the Power Slap League. A new competitor arose with Dave Feldman and the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships. The BKFC even got Conor McGregor to sign on with them.
Dave Feldman's ultimate goal for his league is to grow under his own terms. There have been rumors about the UFC and Dana White offering to buy the BKFC. But, Feldman doused cold water on those reports in his latest statement, via The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.
“No there’s no truth to that, look we had a great conversation. He (Dana White) was very very surprised by the amount of shows and the numbers we were doing, and you know it could be of interest to them but the crazy thing is that as I’m doing this journey it’s a roller coaster man,” the BKFC boss said about the rumors of the UFC buying them out.
BKFC's ties with the UFC
However, the two companies are on good terms. UFC superstar Conor McGregor got a deal for his Forged Irish Stout beer to be one of the partners of the BKFC. Not to mention, he was also present at BKFC 41 and the crowd absolutely loved him.
The ties between both companies are exponentially growing. However, Feldman knows that they have a long way to go and can achieve those goals by themselves for now. A huge sign of this was him striking down an offer for the BKFC.
“You have the best days in the world and then you have days where you’re like ‘Man, forget this, I want to stop.' Yesterday was one of those days. This morning I woke up to an unbelievable offer to buy BKFC and we turned it down, we’re just not where we want to be yet,” he said.
The rise of multiple combat sports leagues will definitely create competition for the UFC. But, it is just astounding that these two companies are growing without knocking each other down.
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