White has now confirmed that Zuffa fighters can compete on Ring Magazine shows and hold championships from both organisations at the same time.
The shift stands in contrast to his position in September 2025, when he told Max Kellerman that Zuffa would not recognise the WBC, WBA, WBO, or IBF. The idea then was replacement, not coexistence. That position weakened once Zuffa signed Jai Opetaia.
Opetaia did not enter the promotion as a prospect or a developmental signing. He arrived as an active world champion with unfinished business and public standing. His team made it clear that unifications remained central to his career, and Zuffa allowed him to pursue them. The belt-only vision did not survive contact with that level of leverage. From there, the direction was set.
White now says fighters can carry multiple belts. He describes the shift as flexibility and respect for ambitions formed long before Zuffa existed. The timing suggests something more basic. Zuffa needs champions with established credibility more than champions need a new title that is still building weight. The change came when the original approach stopped holding up.
The original Zuffa pitch depended on fighters exchanging outside recognition for internal control. That structure can hold with prospects, veterans nearing the end, or fighters without negotiating power. It strains once the roster includes champions whose value was built elsewhere, under the same system Zuffa initially dismissed.
Ring Magazine fits neatly into that reality. Owned by Turki Alalshikh, who helped finance Zuffa Boxing, the Ring cards offer a place for recognised status without requiring White to publicly reverse course on the sanctioning bodies he once rejected. It operates as a pressure release, not a shared philosophy.
Zuffa keeps its internal structure intact while fighters continue pursuing their own ambitions, with the rulebook bending just enough for the operation to keep moving. White moved once boxing tested the idea early and made the limits clear.
Read the full article here
