Dana White and the UFC have already lapped other MMA promotions in the eyes of one of the sport's legends. In a domestic landscape where we are now over a year into PFL having bought Bellator, Eddie Alvarez does not seem to see a seismic shift within the mixed martial arts world.
Appearing on the latest episode of The Ariel Helwani Show, Alvarez covered several subjects of note with the titular figure. The former UFC and Bellator lightweight champion was asked about why it seems like there's such a wide gap between the UFC and other MMA organizations.
Alvarez said,
"The only one who's done it and had longevity is Bellator. I paid really close attention when I was with their promotion about how they're behaving, how they're spending money, what they're doing, where we're fighting, all of that. All of that played a key on their longevity and how they stayed around so long. They're the only ones who have done it.
"Everybody else I've seen, they thought that if I buy the big name that immediately that'll give me some legitimacy. They didn't think about the long term like making money. Which ultimately that's what you need to get to if you want to make your investors happy. So I don't know. All I see is a lot of overspending from every other MMA organization that comes out."
Check out Alvarez discussing the UFC's place in the hierarchy of MMA below:
Dana White and how much the UFC has grown in the 2020s
Dana White and the UFC were demonstrably the industry leaders by many miles circa late 2019, but the figurehead himself has recently spoken about how much the COVID-19 pandemic further grew his company. This was relayed by the UFC CEO during an interview he did with Bloomberg.
The 55-year-old spoke about how during the global pandemic, no live sports were going on outside of what the UFC continued to do as they kept promoting their shows. Dana White described how the company's popularity had grown by around 68 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic while many businesses had to file for bankruptcy during this unprecedented stretch.
The Connecticut native seems to have positioned his promotion to the most high-up spot of prominence it has ever been, and there are no signs of them slowing down.