UFC legend Frank Mir voices hatred for slap fighting following Tim Sylvia’s debut: ‘I want to fix our sport’

Frank MirFrank Mir is not a fan of slap fighting, including Dana White’s Power Slap League Frank Mir, 47, is set to make his final walk to the cage this August alongside his 20-year-old MMA prodigy daughter, Bella Mir. Speaking with talkSPORT, Mir shared his honest thoughts on slap fighting, a sport that has seemingly taken […]

Frank Mir

Frank Mir is not a fan of slap fighting, including Dana White’s Power Slap League

Frank Mir, 47, is set to make his final walk to the cage this August alongside his 20-year-old MMA prodigy daughter, Bella Mir. Speaking with talkSPORT, Mir shared his honest thoughts on slap fighting, a sport that has seemingly taken the internet by storm in recent years.

“I am a big hater of slap fighting,” Mir said. “In fact, if I’m ever going through anything social media and I see anything come up, I try to swipe through it as fast as possible, so the algorithm doesn’t read that I want to see as any of that garbage. I think that is one of the things I want to fix about our sport.”

Frank Mir’s comments come on the heels of former UFC heavyweight titleholder Tim Sylvia making his debut in the controversial sport under the SlapFight Championship banner. ‘The Maine-iac’ earned a win over ‘The Bouncer’ last weekend after five rounds of back-and-forth head-splitting action. Sylvia, who has been very open about his financial hardships following a reluctant 2015 retirement, walked away from MMA after saying that he had “received enough damage over 16 years.”

Frank Mir Wants to Help Fix the Issue of Fighter Compensation in MMA

Once Frank Mir closes the book on his own legendary career this summer, the former UFC heavyweight champion hopes to help the next generation of fighters become more financially secure as they approach retirement, preventing them from engaging in sports like slap fighting to make ends meet.

“You know, when an NFL player goes broke three years after his career no one sits there and goes. ‘Well, the NFL didn’t pay him enough.’ No, they have a player’s union, he got paid, he got compensated, he just went out like an idiot and was having $100,000 parties,” Mir continued. “When you see an MMA fighter who is struggling after his career, people don’t really say, ‘Oh, he didn’t manage his money well.’ It’s, ‘Well, they are not compensated for what they generate.’

“If you look at some of the numbers we pull off on pay-per-views and how much the fighters get paid – that’s one of the things I want to fix about our industry. A much smaller portion goes to the promotion. We are not going to become millionaires off the back of the fighters. The show has to make money so we can continue to have a show but at the same time the fighters themselves are the most compensated.”

NSAC chairman slams Power Slap after six competitors test positive: ‘I didn’t know you needed to use steroids’

Power SlapDana White‘s Power Slap League is once again under scrutiny after six of its competitors tested positive for banned substances. From the moment it was announced, the UFC president’s latest pet project has been belittled by fight fans, calling it nothing more than “sanctioned brain trauma.” With the first season of the controversial series concluding […]

Power Slap

Dana White‘s Power Slap League is once again under scrutiny after six of its competitors tested positive for banned substances.

From the moment it was announced, the UFC president’s latest pet project has been belittled by fight fans, calling it nothing more than “sanctioned brain trauma.” With the first season of the controversial series concluding in March, the backlash finally began to die down. That was until the Nevada State Athletic Commission revealed that multiple Power Slap “athletes” have tested positive for an assortment of performance-enhancing drugs.

NSAC chairman Anthony Marnell responded to the lengthy list of suspended athletes under the Power Slap banner.

“Is there like a big bowl of performance-enhancing drugs down there somewhere that I don’t know about?” Marnell commented. “I haven’t seen this in quite a while. I didn’t know you needed to use steroids to slap but I guess we’re going to find out.”

In 2022, the NSAC unanimously approved the regulation of slap fighting in the state, a decision that former commission chairman Stephen Cloobeck would later regret.

“I made a mistake,” Cloobeck said about his vote in a statement sent to the Associated Press. “I’m not happy about it.”

Nevada State Athletic Commission Reveals Six Power Slap Competitors Who Have Been Suspended

Six men have been slapped with temporary suspensions after testing positive for a plethora of banned substances. MMA Fighting has obtained a list of names and the performance-enhancing drugs they are accused of ingesting, which you can see below:

T.J. Thomas, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 9, suspended after testing positive for clomiphene, a hormone and metabolic modulator

Jay Rivera, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 11, suspended after testing positive for GW-1516, sulfone and sulfoxide, hormone and metabolic modulators

Chris Thomas, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 11, suspended after testing positive for Buprenorphine, a narcotic and its metabolite norbuprenorphine. Buprenorphine is a medication used to treat opioid use disorder.

Andrew Provost, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 11, suspended after testing positive for Buprenorphine, a narcotic and it’s metabolite norbuprenorphine

Isaih Quinones, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 11, suspended after testing positive for Norandrosterone, drostanolone, tamoxifen and boldenone, which are anabolic steroids. His “A” sample was tested and showed “exogenous origin of testosterone.”

Frank Holland, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 11, suspended after testing positive for phentermine, a stimulant that can be prescribed for weight loss.

It’s another setback for Power Slap after dismal ratings during its first season on TBS convinced the network to decline a second-season option. Originally planning to air the March 11 finale on pay-per-view, Dana White was forced to move the event to Rumble, a little-known streaming service typically geared toward conservative-friendly news and content. Following the finale, White revealed his plan to film the next two seasons of Power Slap in Abu Dhabi with both eventually airing on Rumble.

“I’ve got a two-year deal with Rumble. The Abu Dhabi deal, we’re still working it out, but I’d love to do is two years with them too, do season 2 and season 3 over there,” said White at the Power Slap post-fight press conference.

Paddy Pimblett’s Streak Of Dana White-Backing Ends With “Messy” Power Slap League

While he’s often been aligned with the view of promotional president Dana White, UFC lightweight star Paddy Pimblett has finally noted his disagreement with his boss on one topic. Since arriving on MMA’s biggest stage in 2021, Pimblett has …

While he’s often been aligned with the view of promotional president Dana White, UFC lightweight star Paddy Pimblett has finally noted his disagreement with his boss on one topic. Since arriving on MMA’s biggest stage in 2021, Pimblett has quickly risen to prominence courtesy of both his performances inside the Octagon and his personality outside…

Continue Reading Paddy Pimblett’s Streak Of Dana White-Backing Ends With “Messy” Power Slap League at MMA News.

Power Slap PPV Scrapped, Finale to Stream Live for Free Mar. 11

Power Slap League’s season one finale will not be sold on pay-per-view after all. Dana White’s venture into the world of slap fighting was destined to be controversial from the moment it was announced. Not only is the “sport” po…

Power Slap League’s season one finale will not be sold on pay-per-view after all. Dana White’s venture into the world of slap fighting was destined to be controversial from the moment it was announced. Not only is the “sport” polarizing in itself due to its high risk of concussions and traumatic brain injuries, but Power…

Continue Reading Power Slap PPV Scrapped, Finale to Stream Live for Free Mar. 11 at MMA News.

Dana White-Backed Power Slap League Continues To Slump In Viewership Ahead Of March PPV

dana whiteDana White‘s Power Slap League continues to plummet in the ratings just four weeks into their deal with TBS Despite help and introductions from AEW Wrestling, his new promotion failed to crack the top 60 shows watched on Wednesday night, February 8, 2023. For a better understanding, AEW Wrestling reportedly did 899,000 viewers in an […]

dana white

Dana White‘s Power Slap League continues to plummet in the ratings just four weeks into their deal with TBS

Despite help and introductions from AEW Wrestling, his new promotion failed to crack the top 60 shows watched on Wednesday night, February 8, 2023.

For a better understanding, AEW Wrestling reportedly did 899,000 viewers in an 8pm time slot, and the Dallas Mavericks vs LA Clippers NBA game on ESPN got 1.6 million viewers in a 10:05pm time slot, but Dana White‘s slap fighting event came in at no. 68 on the charts, totaling just 275,000 viewers.

Power Slap debuted on TBS on January 18, 2023, and they did 295,000 viewers on that night, so it appears the league is slowly, but progressively declining, and rather quickly.

What’s more, shows like South Park, FOX News, Watch What Happens Live, House Hunters, 1000 lb Best Friends, and Kingdom Business all out-performed TBS on Wednesday.

White certainly suffered his fair share of criticism for even attempting to create a real business out of slap fighting. It looks like those haters were right, at least where it stands right now.

But, mixed martial arts didn’t pull in significant numbers for the first decade-plus of its existence.

Does Dana White‘s Power Slap just need some more time?

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Report – Dana White’s Power Slap League to air tournament finale on pay-per-view in March

Power SlapThe first season of Dana White‘s Power Slap League will culminate in a live pay-per-view event this March. Emanating from The UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Power Slap will crown its first champions on March 11 per a report from Sports Illustrated. The event will feature the finals of four different weight classes including heavyweight, […]

Power Slap

The first season of Dana White‘s Power Slap League will culminate in a live pay-per-view event this March.

Emanating from The UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Power Slap will crown its first champions on March 11 per a report from Sports Illustrated. The event will feature the finals of four different weight classes including heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, and welterweight. The card will be headlined by a heavyweight title match between Power Slap: Road to the Title coaches Darius ‘The Destroyer’ Mata-Varona and ‘Wolverine’ Ron Bata.

Power Slap Sees Improvement in Week Two Numbers

The announcement comes as somewhat of a surprise considering the criticism Dana White and company have received since its inception. With a lowly 295,000 viewers for its debut episode, many assumed Dana White’s latest pet project was on borrowed time, but Power Slap has seen a glimmer of hope in its second week. Aside from impressive numbers on social media, Power Slap saw its viewership increase to 413,000 in week two, though that is still less than half the viewers its lead-in program, All Elite Wrestling, brings in on a weekly basis. This means that more than half of the AEW audience is still opting to change the channel.

The promotion has received significant backlash from fans and fighters who have labeled the product as nothing more than sanctioned brain trauma. Adding insult to injury, former UFC competitor Eric Spicely revealed that participants in the slap-fighting promotion received a pathetic $2,000 to show and $2,000 to win.

The same night that Power Slap wraps up its first season on pay-per-view, the UFC will present a Fight Night card airing live from The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas. The event will feature a top-five bantamweight clash between former titleholder Petr Yan and No. 3 ranked contender Merab Dvalishvili.

Will you shell out your hard-earned money to watch the Power Slap finals on pay-per-view next month?