Dana White-owned Power Slap League, a slap-fighting organization, is set to debut before the end of the year.
UFC president White will add another combat sports promotion experience under his belt with the addition of slap fighting. The new sport has been on the rise in recent years from the many viral clips making rounds on social media. MMA Junkie first reported about the meeting between Schiaffo LLC, an entity operated by White, and the Nevada Athletic Commission, where they would decide if “such contests or exhibitions qualify as unarmed combat … and thus fall under the jurisdiction of the Nevada Athletic commission.”
Dana White-Owned Power Slap League gets approval from Nevada Commission
UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell did a presentation for the NAC, after which they approved the new sport to be overseen and regulated by the state body.
“We’ve spent the last year sort of beta-testing this in a controlled environment to really test and see the dynamic of how this would function as an actual league and real sport,” Campbell said. “What we’ve found is that this is actually a skill sport that the participants, who are at a high level in this, are skilled athletes in. They train. They’re in good shape. They take it seriously, not dissimilar with what you see in MMA and boxing.”
Campbell argued against freak matchups
Campbell stated that they do not intend to make any sort of freak matchups. He also stressed the importance of having the right medical setup in place to avoid any serious injuries.
“Again, our approach was similar to the UFC: Move toward regulation before this is an actual thing” Campbell said. “… With any sort of combat when you’re taking shots to the head, to have it done in a way where there isn’t medical procedures and regulations put around it is an unsafe environment. The second issue is integrity of the sport. The other thing that we’ve seen is, you’ve seen instances where a guy might be 400 pounds, and he’s slapping a guy who’s 130 pounds. That’s also not what we’re looking to do.”
The slap fighting events are planned to be “an identical template” of the UFC events, with their launch scheduled at the UFC Apex by the year-end. A deal with “a major network partner” is also reportedly in the closing stages for the new promotion, which will debut as a television competition series.
