Dana White announces Zuffa Boxing with its own belts, launching 2026.

Dana White, the longtime leader of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has announced plans for a new boxing league that will crown its own champions and reject the sport’s four major sanctioning bodies. White said the Zuffa Boxing league will introduce a Zuffa belt alongside recognition of the Ring magazine title, and that it will not acknowledge WBC, WBA, IBF or WBO championships. He said the league, backed in part by Turki Alalshikh and set to broadcast on Paramount with some events on CBS, aims to launch in 2026 and will employ a UFC-style model focused on competitive matchmaking and building fighters from the prospect level upward.

White described a centralized approach in which top five rankings within his events will determine clear contenders and champions. He said the roster will be built largely from prospects and selected stars and that he intends to “put my head down for the next couple of years and grind” to implement the vision. White added that there will be “a Zuffa belt, and there will be a Ring belt,” and repeated that he will not recognize the established sanctioning bodies.

The announcement sparked swift pushback from boxing’s governing institutions. World...