Tony Bellew has turned his fire on Dana White’s move into boxing, calling him “an embarrassment” from a boxing perspective and questioning whether success in the UFC can be carried straight into the sport. He said the problem shows up fast when someone does not even sound like they understand boxing.
The criticism comes just as Zuffa Boxing has pushed deeper into the sport. White launched the project in 2025 under the TKO Group banner with Sela, then put on the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford event in September 2025 before expanding into a more regular schedule of shows in early 2026.
Bellew’s complaint was not about one bad night. He said that when a promoter cannot talk through the whole card, that is dangerous, and he went further by saying that if someone cannot name the whole card and all the fighters, they are in the wrong sport. It was his way of saying boxing is not built around a single name at the top, but around knowing everyone on the bill and making sure the card is put together with care.
That is the part of Zuffa Boxing Bellew appears to distrust most. He is accusing White’s operation of bringing a UFC-style promotional mindset into boxing without accounting for how the sport protects fighters, builds cards and carries responsibility for every name on the lineup. In Bellew’s view, that is where the structure breaks down.
Even so, Bellew made clear he was not dismissing White’s record outright. He said he has huge amounts of respect for him, admires what he has built with the UFC and speaks as a UFC fan. That makes the criticism sharper, not softer. He is not attacking White’s achievements; he is drawing a line between what works in mixed martial arts and what he believes can go wrong in boxing.
The strongest part of Bellew’s warning was about the people taking the punishment. He said he cares about the fighters and what is being done to them, and he said what they are intending to do to fighters is wrong in every way possible. He also said the most important thing they do not care about is the fighters. That leaves the argument at the center of Zuffa Boxing exposed: whether a more controlled, more consistent promotional model can exist in boxing without putting the fighters second.
White has already shown he wants Zuffa Boxing to become a more structured force in the sport, with a steadier calendar and a clearer system. Bellew’s challenge is that structure alone is not enough. If the people running it cannot speak the language of boxing, he suggests, then the project may keep growing while the sport itself remains unconvinced.
