Throughout his time as the UFC boss, Dana White has had to shut down several bad ideas.
This coming Saturday, UFC boss Dana White promotes his first major boxing event since the announcement of TKO boxing with the consensus saviour of boxing, Turki Alalshikh.
In the main event of the inaugural TKO boxing event, Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford clash for the undisputed super middleweight title, in what guarantees to be one of the biggest fights of the decade.
And with the event set to land historic figures, it has drawn in the attention of stars around the world, with there set to be several famous faces in attendance at the Allegiant Stadium.
Dana White steps in the middle of Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images for Netflix
Dana White shuts down former NFL star’s bizarre UFC request
Ahead of the event, White has been putting in major work helping to promote the fight with a huge media run.
Following the pre-fight press conference this past Thursday, White made an appearance on former NFL stars’ podcast, hosted by Shannon Sharpe and Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson.
Over the last few years with the growing influence of ‘Influencer boxing’, we have seen stars from other sports try their hand at boxing. Jake Paul famously knocked out former NBA star Nate Robinson in just his second professional bout.
However, instead of stepping into the boxing ring to take on an influencer, Chad Johnson plans on stepping into the UFC Octagon to fight a current NFL player.
“I have two fights coming up. I would like you to promote my fights, you and Turki. I wanna fight James Harrison in the UFC, you’re gonna promote it, you’re gonna put me on a card and then I’m gonna do a boxing fight when you get into boxing in 2026, I’m gonna beat the s— out of Andre Ward,” Johnson claimed.
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“Why do you wanna do this? You had an amazing career and now you’ve got a successful podcast, how old are you now? You’re 57? You look f—— great. 57 is too old to be fighting. 57 year olds fight to get out of bed and get on a treadmill every day,” White said as he laughed about the idea.
“Dana you have to do me this favor, please, I wanna fight James Harrison in the Octagon, five rounds, five minutes,” Johnson continued to plead.
“James Harrison the NFL player? Bro, that dude is a monster,” White continued to brush it off.
“You ever heard of the story of David and Goliath, that’s exactly what it’s gonna look like,” Johnson continued.
“Is that a real story or is that a myth? It might be a myth, I think that’s a myth,” White reacted as he broke down laughing.
Dana White heated argument during pre-fight press conference
During the pre-fight press conference, the UFC boss got into a heated argument with a boxing reporter who pressed White on his plans for TKO boxing.
And during the argument, Canelo chimed in and started the chant, ‘Fight, fight, fight’ as White refused to answer any questions that weren’t about the upcoming super fight.