The Nevada State Athletics Commission voted to sanction UFC president Dana White’s new venture, the Power Slap League, last week.
The league is exactly what it sounds like. Two contestants stand facing each other, and then take turns slapping one another until one contestant submits to the pain.
The videos from the league’s last showcase at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Sports Classic must be seen to be believed:
Hunter Campbell, UFC’s chief business officer, says the company spent a year working on regulations for the new bloodsport.
“It made all the sense in the world to go toward regulation before the sport’s commencing, for all the obvious reasons – No 1, the health and safety of the competitors,” Campbell told ESPN. Campbell also wants “blood testing, brain scans, and on-site medical testing.”
At least one MMA writer was perturbed by the news:
“If boxing is to hit and not be hit, slap fighting is kinda the opposite where getting hit is specifically arranged and done without impediment. Nevada’s commission is pretty shameless,” Luke Thomas of CBS wrote.
The Power Slap League hopes to have a “major broadcast partner by year’s end,” according to Campbell. There is no official start date yet announced for the new league.
[ESPN]
About DJ Byrnes