Dana White gets himself a new critic in ex-rugby star Sonny Bill Williams over Power Slap League
Dana White's latest endeavor, the Power Slap League, has been met with lukewarm enthusiasm at best and outright derision at worst from fight fans. The combat sports community's outcry against the sport's brutality has been rising steadily over the past few weeks.
Some people find it repulsive that slap fighting is based on the principle that two fighters face each other and take turns trying to knock each other out with open-hand attacks. Athletes and neurologists from other sports have also spoken out against the league because of the risks of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and brain trauma.
Former rugby player Sonny Bill Williams, who became a professional boxer in 2009, is the latest entrant to offer his stance on the Power Slap League. Williams did not appear to be a huge admirer of the viral format, a sentiment shared by the majority of internet users. On Twitter, he voiced his disgust by writing:
"Rugby & league fans think about this? Would you let your children compete in it? It’s a big NO for me."
Rugby & league fans think about this?
Would you let your children compete in it? It’s a big NO for me. twitter.com/boxingkingdom1…
Dana White's Power Slape League has not attracted a large audience, according to viewership statistics. SHOWBUZZDAILY states that the third episode of the show received a 0.09 rating among adults aged 18–49, down from the 0.13 rating the previous week.
The league has also been condemned for its meager wage structure, which Dana White has defended with baseless justifications.
Dana White defends viewership of the Power Slap League
The Power Slap League is not exactly thriving on cable television despite being marketed more than the upcoming UFC 284 pay-per-view. Power Slap aired the third episode of its eight-episode schedule on Wednesday last week, and according to ShowBuzzDaily, the most recent viewership figures were below average.
Power Slap was back down to the level of its first week. 284,000 viewers and a 0.09 P18-49 rating,
However, during the post-event press conference for UFC 68 in Las Vegas, Dana White stated that Power Slap attracts more social media views than the UFC, WWE, and even the NFL. White claims that each TikTok post promoting the new slap-fighting show has over 10 million views:
"I mean, the social media and digital is insane [for 'Power Slap']. I don't know if you guys have looked at that, but on TikTok you know, we average 10 million views per post... and to put it into perspective, the WWE does 1.5 million, the UFC does 770,000, the NFL does 545,000, we're pulling 10 million."
He added:
"When you look at the TV show and the spot that we're at and everything, everything that they put on that network [TBS] coming from AEW has failed... We hold 47 to 50 percent of the AEW crowd and we're number two every night, with men in all of cable behind the NBA."
Check out White's comments below: