Dan ‘Big Cat’ Katz reveals he and Dave Portnoy turned down $10 million offer to attend Saudi Arabia boxing match

As the rest of the sports world gladly takes Saudi Arabia’s money, Barstool Sports was willing to say no.

Only it wasn’t some principled stand the company was taking. Rather, it was merely a matter of the two sides not being able to agree on a price.

During Thursday’s episode of The Yak, Dan “Big Cat” Katz reiterated his belief that Saudi Arabia is “doing a really good job” when it comes to sports washing. Such efforts have included LIV Golf, a partnership with WWE, the funding of TKO’s Zuffa Boxing promotion and a recently announced Fanatics flag football event featuring Tom Brady.

“They’re washing the sh*t out of stuff,” the Pardon My Take co-host said.

Apparently, Saudi Arabia’s efforts also include an attempt to get Katz and Dave Portnoy to attend an unspecified boxing match. Ultimately, however, the two sides weren’t able to reach a deal.

“By the way, I’m not judging this one either, because Dave and I were once offered and they just didn’t reach our price, but we were gonna go,” Katz said during a discussion about the upcoming Riyadh Comedy Festival. “There was a boxing match — for the two of us to attend and we talked on the phone and we were like, ‘it’s a sh*tload of travel. Give us like $15 million and we’ll do it.’ And they were like, ‘we can do 10 [million]’ and we were like, ‘no.'”

The diehard Chicago sports fan also explained that a significant portion of the payment would have been directed toward Barstool at large as opposed to just himself and Portnoy. Still, it’s somewhat surprising that they turned down the eight-figure offer, especially if they only would have been required to attend the event.

As Saudi Arabia further entrenches itself in the U.S. sports scene, it seems like a safe bet that its first offer to Barstool Sports won’t be its last. And to that end, Katz stated that he’d be more than willing to host a personal episode of Pardon My Take for a mere $100 million.