7 feet 1 inch tall, over 300 plus pounds, an arm span of 7′ 7″, and 11-inch palm size, that’s how Shaquille O’Neal would be described accurately. And a what-if scenario would come to mind about Shaq and combat sports. We are not the only ones who have thought about this. President of UFC, speaks about the rare crossover and O’Neal’s enthusiasm about the sport.

On his The Big Podcast with Shaq, co-host Adam Lefkoe asked, “Could you even imagine if all of his energy as a youth had gone just to MMA what this could have been?” Dana White said, “100% I mean this Maniac used to call me all the time. ” Refereeing Shaq, White also spoke about how adamant Shaq was to join the UFC, as he would constantly text him.

“I’m telling you Dana I’m gonna fight I’m gonna fight in the UFC I’m I’m training.” The 54-year-old continued, “Call me or text me. text me all the time telling me yeah 100% yeah.” Shaquille O’Neal also spoke about his 2018 UFC fight against Forrest Griffin. The UFC legend was 39 at the time and O’Neal was 46. Recalling that experience Shaq said, ” he’s the strongest mother f***er ever.”

Describing the fight with the Lakers legend said that he couldn’t submit him and was not sure if I don’t know if Griffin was taking it easy. However, the case might be, that he couldn’t submit O’Neal. But after that obviously Shaq was sore, as he revealed on his podcast.

The topic came about because Shaq’s friend Shannon Sharpe discussed in his podcast about O’Neal’s potential debut in UFC. Dana White had no issues including the 4x NBA champion, but Sharpe reminded him about the weight class issue. The only reason O’Neal accepted it was because of his training.

Shaquille O’Neal on training UFC and winning the NBA championship

Shaq knows his physical prowess and said liked to fight, correcting himself by saying ‘used to’. And whenever O’Neal watched UFC he had the mindset that he could take any challenges. Crediting Jonathan Burke, Celebrity Trainer, and Head Coach from Orlando in his training.

Shaq said “When I trained for basketball and then had to go to the season and they would wrestle me I would get tired. But when I trained wrestling I was in shape and we won three years in a row so every time I did my UFC training I won.” Also speaking about the fight Shaq exclusively spoke with FTW after the fight 6 years ago.

Discrediting the claim, that he was nervous before the fight, as Shaq called himself a fighter. His goal was not to get submitted which he successfully managed. But it’s not that Shaq didn’t tap out, he tapped out to Claudia Gadelha. The former Brazilian MMA athlete was supposed to fight O’Neal next but instead tapped him out before the fight. However, that was not a waste as she earned  $10,000 from Shaq.

He promised her if the 5 foot 11 tapped him out he would pay the amount personally. So with the fire to fight behind him, Shaq doesn’t seem eager to fight, but can a celebrity fight change his mind? Only time will tell.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.