Shaquille O'Neal helped UFC out "much like Joe Rogan" in early days, says Dana White
Shaquille O'Neal welcomed UFC CEO Dana White to his The Big Podcast with Shaq, where both men touched on a number of topics, including how O'Neal had lent his assistance to both White and the UFC during the promotion's early days. In fact, the two men are good friends.
After O'Neal recounted how White and the Fertitta brothers had gifted him a diamond-encrusted watch, the UFC CEO spoke about their friendship and the help O'Neal had lent them years ago, long before the promotion was a mainstay of mainstream sports.
"Here's the story, he's being Shaq as usual. We didn't just say, 'Hey, get Shaq over here and whatever.' Shaq did a lot of very good things for us early on when we were trying to build the UFC, much like Joe Rogan. There's the Joe Rogan story, where Joe did the first 12 or 13 shows for free. So, when we're launching The Ultimate Fighter season 1, Shaq came in and laid down one of the baddest commercials for The Ultimate Fighter that you will ever see."
After they replayed the commercial for the first edition of 'The Ultimate Fighter,' White further praised O'Neal for his contributions.
"And what's crazy is when we went into film this, he did it in one take. So, when you wonder why this dude's 787,000 commercials, okay, he came in and just laid this thing down. One take on The Ultimate Fighter and it was awesome."
Check out Shaquille O'Neal and Dana White reminiscing about their collaboration (8:23):
White has made it a point to retain the loyalty of those who helped the UFC in its early days, which includes not just UFC commentator Rogan, but also former United States president Donald Trump, who offered the promotion a venue when no one else would.
Shaquille O'Neal is a longtime MMA fan
While most celebrities only recently began associating with the UFC and MMA, specifically following the rise of Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey, Shaquille O'Neal has been a loyal follower of the sport for decades. In fact, he began training in MMA in 2000 at Jonathan Burke's Gracie Gym.
Check out Shaquille O'Neal training:
He even challenged Hongman Choi to a fight, given that the latter is one of the few MMA fighters to match his physical stature. Unfortunately for O'Neal, the fight never materialized.