Big weekend for UFC, Dana White highlighted by start of streaming deal

UFC CEO Dana White could not have been much happier with his organization’s debut weekend on its new streaming platform Paramount+.

Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett certainly helped by capping the broadcast with a spectacular display of mutual violence in the main event of UFC 324 on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.

“Absolute dogfight,” White said. “A war. Much respect to those guys. I didn’t know Paddy Pimblett had a chin like that.”

It was tested early and often. Gaethje knocked him down with some powerful right hands in the opening minutes and kept the pressure on for nearly the entire 25 minutes on his way to a unanimous decision victory to capture the interim lightweight title.

But Pimblett just kept coming forward and delivering punishment of his own, especially over the second half of the fight.

“He came up to me at weigh-ins and told me he was going to knock (Gaethje) out,” White said of Pimblett. The more shots he took, I figured he would have to try to get him down and submit him, but he never abandoned that game plan.”

It helped make for a wildly entertaining start to the post-pay-per-view model as the UFC moved into the streaming era.

While fans were thrilled with the action, White said his partners at CBS were ecstatic about how the event performed with customers kicking off a $7.7 billion deal.

“We’ll have numbers on Tuesday or Wednesday, but it suceeded expectations beyond belief for Paramount,” he said. “We know it killed it. We just don’t know the exact number yet.”

It’s unexplainable how enthusiastic and incredible these guys have been. We have a real good feeling it’s going to be a great relationship the next seven years.”

All that is in addition to the debut of White’s Zuffa Boxing promotion on Friday, which also streams on Paramount+. The organization launched at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas with a somewhat underwhelming card, but one that should set the foundation to be the kind of major disrupter in the sport White has predicted.

There were some hiccups in production, like the timing of commercials now that pay-per-view is gone, a botched introduction from Bruce Buffer and even a referee suffering a torn ACL in the cage.

Then there was another betting controversy, politically incorrect comments from fighters and some fighters expressing confusion about the payment structure under the new deal.

But in all, it was a successful weekend for White’s organization, which included the unveiling of massive upgrades at the Apex where capacity will soon approach 1,000.

Still, White wasn’t in the mood to celebrate his success after just one weekend.

“It will mean something to me at the end of the year,” he said. “I don’t think like that. I’m not the type to think, ‘Oh, what a special day for me.’ The way I look at it is we are just going into a new deal and have a lot of work to do, especially on the boxing side. After Christmas, I usually go away for like 10 days and that’s when I start to think about how the year was and what we’re going to do in 2027.”

White said his attention for now will turn to one of his most ambitious projects to date, a planned June 14 event on the White House lawn.

It’s very possible Gaethje earned his way into the lineup for that historic event with his performance Saturday night in what would likely be a title unification bout against lightweight champ Ilia Topuria.

“There’s no way they can keep me off the card now,” Gaethje said.

Pimblett should also emerge with plenty of opportunities after suffering his first UFC loss, but showcasing heart and toughness to go with the charisma and flashy style fans already knew about.

“You have to learn these lessons,” Gaethje said. “His mindset going into that fight was not good. False confidence will kill you every time and that’s what he had. You cannot approach this sport like that and he’ll learn. He’s really good. He’s so tough. He’ll get there soon, no doubt.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.