Dana White’s Power Slap League has come under fire from fans and fighters alike following its television debut.
The newest combat sport made its television debut under the helm of Dana White yesterday (January 19) showcasing competitors taking turns slapping each other as hard as they can.
The aim was to knock out your opponent or make them quit in a vicious fashion.
The airing showed some particularly brutal footage of the athletes being out on their feet quite suddenly and suffering some dangerous head hits.
The sport was regulated by the Nevada State Athletic Commission following some convincing by Dana White.
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With concussions and head knocks being such a hot topic, the new project has faced some early criticism.
And it seems like many in the MMA world as well as fans are already rejecting the idea of the sport.
Former heavyweight Brendan Schaub tweeted out his displeasure with the sport being associated with the UFC and subsequently detrimental to MMA.
He wrote: “Checking out the Slap fight league. This is the stupidest s**t I’ve ever seen. The fact it’s associated with the UFC sets the sport back 10 yrs. All that being said it’s entertaining. Anyone wanna bet it’s not around in a year?”
Current UFC lightweight Matt Frevola had a similar point of view.
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He tweeted: “I don’t want to know how much money went into this Power Slap s**t. Why not put that money towards making the UFC a better overall product and legitimising the sport? It’s also dumb af lol.”
Meanwhile, former UFC fighter Ben Askren said: “I just don’t see the attraction to Power Slap. Feels like you have to be sadistic to like it.”
The debut episode was delayed a week following the New Year’s Eve incident between White and his wife.
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It led to many calling for the organisation to be dissolved by those such as MMA journalist Ariel Helwani.
However, those calls fell on deaf ears.
But after the first episode and the subsequent public perception, TBS may be reconsidering its stance.
One fan tweeted: “Our society has hit rock bottom…”
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Another wrote: “This new Power Slap league show is f***ing stupid. There’s no skill to this and the fact that it still debuted on national television after Dana White’s NYE fiasco with his wife and the current rise of CTE in athletes is just disgusting. We don’t need this.”
A third added: “I’ve watched Power Slap for four minutes and it’s the dumbest f***ing thing I’ve ever seen.”
SPORTbible reached out to Power Slap League for comment.
Topics: Dana White, MMA, UFC
Jayden Collins