LAS VEGAS — UFC president Dana White didn’t start all the Ronda Rousey vs. Floyd Mayweather talk.
But he’s not going to shy away from it, either.
White was talking to reporters Thursday at the MGM Grand about the proposed boxing match between boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. and retired UFC fighter Chris Lytle. In doing so, White reiterated his belief that the UFC women’s bantamweight champion would beat boxing’s pound-for-pound kingpin in any setting other than a boxing ring.
“I didn’t start the whole ‘Ronda Rousey would beat Floyd Mayweather’ thing, that didn’t start with me,” White said. I just agreed with it and supported it 100 percent. You take a street fight, Ronda wins that fight and hurts him badly. You do an MMA fight, seem result. Boxing match? Mayweather chews her up.”
Simply, White believes Mayweather, having never had to contend with judo or any sort of grappling, wouldn’t have an answer for the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, regardless of gender.
“Do you think Floyd Mayweather has ever had his feet kicked out from under him?” White asked. “She walks around at 160, 165. At 165 pounds, all her weight coming down on him, on the street, on here, on the concrete, I don’t care where it is, she’s going to hurt him badly. I’ve seen her throw big dudes and hurt ‘em.”
White said that he understands that most men can’t wrap their brain around the idea that a woman could compete with a man in a fight.
“You don’t want to see a fight between a man and woman, but, any other situation I’d be like ‘nah,'” White said. “Not that one. Ronda’s neck is [White gestures] this big. Her shoulders are this big. When she grabs on to you, she’s not your average woman. Are you s—— me? She’s mean. She’ll kick the living s— out of me, and you, and everyone else standing here, like it or not.
“I was on an ESPN radio show at the Clippers game [last week in Los Angeles]” White continued. “The Max Kellerman show, we’re on the street and guys were [disbelieving], I was like, ‘she’ll clean this f—— street out, all of you, every one of you out there. You can’t wrap your brain around that.”
For the record, White said he believed Jones would easily win the boxing match with Lytle, since Lytle, despite a boxing background, would be competing with one of the sport’s all-time greats.