Bellator MMA announced earlier today that they partnered with NASCAR and Monster Energy to have a boxing ring in the midway on racedays.

Hours later, that statement from Bellator was retracted, despite being retweeted numerous times on Twitter, with the words “details to come”.

The initial announcement from Bellator mentioned that the boxing ting would be at the All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, The Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in October, and the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Here is the first announcement:

Bellator partners w/ Monster Energy & NASCAR for series of fights at select races during the 2017 season starting in Charlotte pic.twitter.com/FwLxLgDN1U

— Chris Pursell (@VegasandVine) April 3, 2017

Bellator and Monster Energy have had similar activations across Monster Energy AMA Supercross in recent years.

NASCAR has released a statement about this new deal.

“NASCAR does not have a partnership with Bellator.”

This announcement comes off the heels of the Joey Logano and Kyle Busch incident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

On April 4th, Bellator MMA re-released the press release that has no mention of NASCAR. However, it mentions that this is a Monster deal, not a NASCAR deal. Bellator mentioned that they would be part of the fan-activation on the midway, exclusively for those at select tracks, which have yet to be released. 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fl— When Monster Energy was announced as the title sponsor for NASCAR’s premier series, their sense of activation was going to be considered “fun” and different than what fans have seen before.

However, during one of the sports marquee weekends, Monster’s activation does not show that they are the title sponsor for one of the top motorsports entities in the United States.

Just last weekend, Monster Executives told SB Nation that they were taking a “wait-and-see” approach.

“We want to go into the season and learn as we go,” Mitch Covington, Monster’s Vice President of Sports Marketing, told SB Nation. “And I think you’ll see our presence build somewhat as the races go. Some races we’ll have more presence than others. We really just want to build it out first, (rather) than go all-in for the first weekend and the Clash.”

Over the past week, there was roughly nine posts mentioning “Daytona 500” or “NASCAR” on the Monster Energy Twitter page.

Compared to the opening weekend of Daytona Speedweeks for NASCAR, Monster’s activation has increased, but it is still lacking. Xfinity, who sponsors NASCAR’s number two series, has better activation compared to Monster.

Currently, Monster’s activation includes a social deck that showcases Monster girls and provides fans the opportunity to “sample” full cans of Monster’s products. On the social deck, there are video screens that showcase Monster’s other motorsports sponsorship. Outside of the social deck, Monster has a steel ball and rally cars for demostrations. The crowd at the Monster station was mainly filled with men.

Besides limited Monster Energy NASCAR Cup gear at the Fanatics tent, logos posted on the wall, logo in the grass, and a small section in the midway Monster’s activation is not that of other sponsors.

Monster has launched a microsite that provides content for the series.

However, the Xfinity activation showcased Xfinity products such as the X1 platform. Xfinity also had a spin to win game, virtual reality station that showed what it is like behind the wheel at Daytona, photo opportunity with a fan’s head and a fire suit. Xfinity even had a showcar to which fans can take pictures of. The people manning the station were engaging with customers asking if they had Xfinity or have tried out different products. The main demographic was a mixture of men and women.