UFC CEO Dana White recently shared a surprising story about how his association with Floyd Mayweather and his family began. The UFC boss began his journey into combat sports as an amateur boxer at age 17 with hopes of becoming a professional himself. However, an encounter with a boxer who showed signs of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) put him off the idea and he later began working as a ‘boxercise’ coach, first in Boston and later in Las Vegas.

In his recent appearance on ‘The Flagrant’ podcast with comedian Andrew Schulz, White recounted his early days in Las Vegas, shedding light on how his relationship with Roger and Floyd Mayweather began. This connection, formed long before the success of the UFC highlights White’s connections in the combat sports world, which gave us the spectacular clash between Mayweather and Conor McGregor back in 2017!

Dana White shares the story of how he met Floyd Mayweather in his early days

In his conversation with Andrew Schulz, Dana White revealed that his return to Las Vegas in the early 1990s was the start of his enduring relationship with the Mayweather family. The UFC boss stated, “So when I first came back to Vegas there was a gym called ‘United Champions’, and this guy named ‘Nick One-kick’, who was a muay-thai trainer and Roger Mayweather.”

A stunned Schulz then inquired if White has known the Mayweather family for “decades” to which White responded by saying yes. The podcast host then inquired if Roger Mayweather lived up to his reputation by asking, “And was Roger as wild back in the day?”

The UFC head honcho bluntly stated, “Roger was a f**king maniac.”  The conversation then touched upon the family dynamics with the Mayweather clan as Floyd’s father was incarcerated and the younger Mayweather then had his training duties taken up by his uncles, Roger and Jeff.

White revealed, “His dad was in jail, so while he was in jail, his uncles, you know Roger and Jeff took care of Floyd. Jeff was younger than Roger, yeah. So those guys, sort of took Floyd under the wing and helped Floyd out while the dad, his dad, was in jail. So that’s how me and Floyd became close and go to know each other early on and yeah, so it was me, Roger and Nick One-kick that worked out of United Champions.”

These relationships not only influenced White’s path but also contributed to iconic events like the Mayweather-McGregor fight, and according to ‘Money’, that fight propelled ‘The Notorious’ to the stratosphere of combat sports stardom!

Mayweather claims he is responsible for Conor McGregor’s ‘superstardom’ 

The bout between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor was one of the biggest cross-over events ever seen in combat sports history! According to a report by TalkSport, the fight generated a revenue of over $600 million dollars and elevated McGregor into the MMA icon he is today.

As such, in his appearance on ‘The Pivot Podcast’ the undefeated boxer was asked what he thought about McGregor’s marketing of the fight, to which he responded by stating, “Look how big he got – If you look at these fighters. Look how big these fighters got after facing me.”

In light of Dana White’s revelation about the connection between him and the Mayweather family, it’s hard to imagine how things would have played out for McGregor’s career if he hadn’t been able to secure the bout against ‘Money’. 

With the Irishman reported to be one of the richest MMA fighters of all time after his fight against Mayweather, it’s a testament to Dana White’s skills as a promoter and his connections in the combat sports world that he has created stars like ‘The Notorious’ and taken the UFC to incredible heights!