Dan White: Muhammad Ali Says the Toughest Thing about Being a Fighter

On Tuesday, UFC president Dana White signed five new fighters to the UFC roster. After their wins on the first episode, he awarded Cesar Almeida, Tom Nolan, Caio Machado, Payton Talbott, and Kevin Borjas contracts. 

While speaking to the media afterward he was asked what kind of advice he’d give to the new fighters to make their careers last and it was the GOAT of boxing who White cited. 

“I was just watching this clip of Muhammad Ali the other day on Instagram, and he was being interviewed. And they were asking him, ‘What’s the toughest part of being a fighter? Is it the training? Is it the this? Is it the that?’,” he said. “And Muhammad Ali says, ‘It’s the women and the partying.’ He says, you know, ‘when everybody’s out having fun and living it up, I’m going to bed at 09:00 and waking up and training the next day’.”

From there he explained that while these young men are young, if they do things right, they can have a long successful career. 

“It’s the truth. If you can keep your head together and as you start, some people deal with fame really well, and some people deal with it the exact opposite. So, if you can keep your head together and stay focused, with the amount of talent that we see on this show, who knows what the possibilities are?”