Dana White is quite happy with UFC’s success as the company enters a streaming deal with Paramount.

The top mixed martial arts promotion scored a seven-year deal for $7.7 billion to have its events streamed on Paramount+ and broadcast on CBS. It’s a massive increase from the $1.5 billion media rights deal UFC agreed to with ESPN back in 2019.

Business has been booming for UFC, and White recently spoke on stage at the “UNCONVENTIONAL PIONEER: Redefining Sports Entertainment” panel in Riyadh. The UFC boss touted his promotion’s ticket sales (h/t MMAFighting).

“We got the UFC to a place where people are buying tickets before we even announce the main event,” White said. “So we started to build this relationship with the fanbase that they knew we were going to deliver no matter what happened. Boxing hasn’t done that in a long time.”

The UFC boss also reflected on changing the perception of MMA when he first entered the fray. He said one of the key factors was not repeating the same mistakes that were made with boxing.

“I saw a lot of things that I thought were wrong and broken with boxing at the time and I felt that if we kept building on delivering a good product [with UFC] every time — I’ve been saying for a long time, I feel like every time you watch a boxing event it’s like a going out of business sale,” White said. “They’re trying to grab up as much money as they can.

“They don’t care if the live event is good or even if the television event is good. As long as they can bring in a ton of money, that’s all they did.”

White has another big card to look forward to on Saturday. UFC 321 will be held inside Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The event will be headlined by a UFC Heavyweight Championship fight between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane. That won’t be the only title bout on the card, as Mackenzie Dern and Virna Jandiroba will do battle for the vacant UFC Women’s Strawweight Championship.

BJPenn.com will have you covered during UFC 321. Keep it locked on the homepage this Saturday for live results, video highlights, and pro fighter reactions.