Boxing
Dana White credits 50 Cent for sparking Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight
UFC president Dana White has huge plans for the company in 2020, including working with Floyd Mayweather Jr. on the boxing legend's promised return to fighting.
"Floyd and I both feel like we add value to each other and we're going to figure something out," White recently told ESPN after he and Mayweather struck a handshake deal courtside at an NBA game. "Some things have to play out and then I'm going to start talking to [Al] Haymon maybe this summer and I'll have something for Floyd in the fall."
When asked whether that "something" means Mayweather fighting or being a partner of his, White clarified that it'd be for the 42-year-old to "compete."
MORE: Ryan Garcia returns for Valentine's Day bout with Francisco Fonseca
In teasing Mayweather's return for the fall of 2020, White recalled how the ball got rolling for Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor in 2017 and revealed it was 50 Cent, who initially sparked the bout.
"I bumped into 50 Cent in New York, and he said, ‘Floyd wants to fight your boy,’" White remembered about his run-in with the rap mogul. "I said, ‘My boy who?’ He’s like, ‘The Irish kid.’ And I’m like, ‘He’ll kill him,’ because I’m thinking MMA. He said, ‘We’ll box him.’ I said, ‘You guys are crazy.’ He said, ‘He’s serious. I’ll call him right now.’ And then that’s how it all really got started.
"And then everywhere I went, it was all anybody asked me about," he added. "Then, once I started to really feel it, that’s when I started to take it serious, and I made an offer.”
What followed was one of the most explosive promotions that fight fans have ever seen, although the actual bout paled in comparison, as Mayweather carried McGregor through the early rounds before delivering a 10th-round TKO.
What White and Mayweather will come up with next remains to be seen.
