Over his time as the UFC boss, Dana White has made a lot of bold claims but one of his boldest included Floyd Mayweather and Ronda Rousey.
During her tenure in the UFC, Ronda Rousey had an incredible relationship with her boss Dana White, as he helped shape her career as the most influential female UFC fighter of all time.
During that time, the hype around ‘Rowdy’ Ronda was palpable as she simply ran through every fighter in her sight, accumulating six title defenses in the premier promotion.
And whilst at the peak of her powers, it seemed as though no one would be able to stop Rousey, which led Dana to make one of his boldest claims ever.
Dana White claimed Rousey would viciously ‘beat up’ Floyd Mayweather in a fight
Rousey was most well known for her incredible judo skillset along with her terrific submissions which saw her tap out the likes of Liz Carmouche and Miesha Tate.
And in 2014, Rousey scored back-to-back wins over Sara McMann and Alexis Davis, two TKO wins where she showed off her striking.
Following those wins when the hype around Rousey was echoing around the entire combat sports world, White agreed with an extremely bold claim from Joe Rogan that Rousey would beat boxing world champion Floyd Mayweather if they fought in MMA.
“Yeah, I agree with Joe, she would definitely beat him, she would beat him and she would hurt him bad,” Dana told ESPN.
“Have you ever seen Floyd Mayweather? He’s tiny, he’s about this big. Trust me, there would be no problem, she can, I’ve seen her throw bigger men than Floyd Mayweather, and hurt him bad, she’d hurt him.
“It would be over very quickly. As soon as she’d put her hands on him it’d be over… That’s what makes her such a special individual, there has never been a woman in combat sports like her, she would take the fight too, she would do it in a heartbeat,” White continued.
Although it may not have seemed like a wild claim at the time, Rousey struggled in her career against strikers and went on to lose her last two fights by vicious knockout.
White’s bold claim hit new levels when he claimed other female fighters would beat Mayweather
Years later, White’s claim grew to an entirely different level. When Conor McGregor was campaigning for a boxing clash against ‘Money’ Mayweather, Dana continued to put Floyd’s chances down against female fighters.
“Not just Conor, she’d beat Mayweather right there, see her, she’d beat Mayweather, these guys would all beat Mayweather,” Dana said when pointing at former UFC fighter Paige VanZant.
Of course, Dana’s claims came back to bite him on the backside when Mayweather went on to finish McGregor in their boxing super fight, but he never repaid the favor by stepping into the UFC Octagon.