“I Ended Up Connecting With Floyd…”: Years Before Flaunting His Half a Billion Dollar Net Worth, UFC President Dana White Recalls Meeting 18-Year-Old Floyd Mayweather

Fate works in funny ways, and you cross paths with people you least expect to. The same is true for Dana White. The UFC President has met illustrious personalities and boasts of noted friendships with Donald Trump Jr. and Shaquille O’Neal. He also goes back a long way when it comes to one of the greatest boxers in the world, Floyd Mayweather.

The man behind the UFC, White, once toiled hard to realize his dreams. But for the square circle. While some fans may not know, he once harbored a desire to follow in the footsteps of Mike Tyson and pursue a professional boxing career. Therefore, after juggling multiple jobs, he shifted to Las Vegas, where fate had interwoven a meeting with ‘Money’.

Dana White, Floyd Mayweather, and a place called United Champions

The 54-year-old appeared in an interview with BigBoyTV and went down memory lane to the mid-90s when boxing was thriving. He recalled that the fans still had Mike Tyson and big heavyweight names like Riddick Bowe. “There were a couple of big boxing gyms here in town that were popping at the time, and I ended up at a place called United Champions,” he disclosed.

The ‘United Champions’ was filled with remarkable people, including Roger Mayweather, the former American boxer who won titles in the WBA, WBC, and IBO. “It was me, Roger Mayweather, Nick Onekick, who was a Muay Thai guy. We were basically the three principals in this gym. I was doing fitness stuff. Roger Mayweather obviously was, you know, training fighters,” White continued.

“And Nick Onekick was working with, you know, Muay Thai type clients. That’s how I ended up connecting with Floyd. That’s how Floyd and I first met each other was through Jeff Mayweather, Roger’s brother,” White added.

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Notably, Roger Mayweather then worked as a trainer for his nephew, Floyd, and the duo dominated the boxing scene from 2000 to 2012. Meanwhile, White found a different calling while working in boxing gyms: managing MMA stars.

From the square circle to the Octagon

White met Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell in the boxercise gyms and then worked as their manager. While trying to squeeze out beneficial terms for Ortiz from the UFC, he learned Bob Meyrowitz, the UFC’s co-founder, was looking to sell the promotion.

Exhibiting his business acumen, he soon connected with his childhood friend, Lorenzo Fertitta, and persuaded him to buy the UFC. In a deal worth $2 billion, they acquired the brand UFC and an old octagon in 2001. However, White, currently worth $500 million, soon turned around the UFC’s fortunes, and its current evaluation stands at $12 billion.

What do you make of these statements by Dana White? Let us know in the comments below.

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