Dana White’s boisterous claims that Ronda Rousey could beat up Floyd Mayweather in an MMA fight have prompted no comeback responses from the undefeated boxing legend, until now.
“I don’t even know who he is,” Mayweather told Davis Greisman of BoxingScene.com, when asked about the UFC women’s bantamweight champ.
The room was instantly filled with chuckles and light laughter, as Mayweather turned his head from side to side with a straight face. When it was revealed that Rousey was a top female fighter in the UFC, Mayweather merely shrugged off the momentary confusion and reiterated that he had never heard of Rousey.
“I didn’t even know who that is,” said Mayweather.
UFC President Dana White refuses to be swayed by such tomfoolery, especially when it comes to his biggest star.
Yes, you heard that right. Go ahead and scratch off legendary names like Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture. During a media luncheon back in February, per Jeff Cain of MMAWeekly, White called Rousey the biggest star in UFC history.
He also happens to believe she could beat Mayweather in an MMA fight.
During an appearance on ESPN’s Highly Questionable, he claimed that Rousey wouldn’t just beat Mayweather in the Octagon, but he also envisioned her hurting the boxing star badly. The comments created interest in a hypothetical dream fight pitting the best boxer in the world against the UFC women’s champ.
Of course, the mere idea of the fight actually coming to fruition is asinine, but this still hasn’t stopped people from debating and breaking down the matchup.
Still, White doesn’t believe for a second that Mayweather hasn’t heard of Rousey. He thinks the boxing star’s comments were simply a matter of being caught between a rock and a hard place.
“What’s Floyd going to say? That’s a lose-lose situation for Floyd,” White told UFC.com. “For him to even acknowledge that he knows who Ronda is, and that she could possibly beat him in a fight, ya know, that’s what I’d expect him to say.”
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
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