Dana White: 'I'd Be an Idiot Not to Make' Justin Bieber vs. Tom Cruise
June 19, 2019
Justin Bieber taking on Tom Cruise in an MMA contest is not completely out of the question, according to UFC President Dana White.
The Canadian popstar recently called Cruise out on Twitter, challenging him to "fight in the Octagon" and tagging White in the message:
White said that initially, like many people, he dismissed it, but he was then contacted by some "real people" who want to make the fight happen, per TMZ Sports:
"I'm gonna tell you something interesting. Lots of people will talk about fighting somebody in the UFC, whether it's NFL players or celebrities or whatever; it happens a lot. So obviously I saw [the tweet] like everybody else did, and I didn't pay much attention to it.
"Then it picked up a lot of steam and was everywhere. I'm not gonna say any names, but I'm gonna tell you that I got a phone call from a couple of real guys who said that they really do want to do this fight, and they believe that Tom Cruise would do the fight. And I told them, 'If that's true and everybody involved in this thing really wants to do it, we can talk.' I'd be an idiot not to make this fight."
When asked if he genuinely thought it could happen, White responded that he never thought Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather would happen, but it did.
Two-division UFC champion McGregor tempted Mayweather out of retirement in August 2017, and they met in Las Vegas for the Irishman's first-ever boxing fight.
Mayweather won by TKO in the 10th round to take his professional record to 50-0.
It was a hugely lucrative event, but it was widely derided as something of a sham:
At the very least, though, it was two professional fighters of reasonable age—McGregor is now 30, Mayweather 42—going up against each other.
In the case of Bieber and Cruise, the former is 25 and the latter 56, and they are a popstar and movie icon.
Per TMZ Sports, the Top Gun and Mission: Impossible actor was a "star wrestler in high school" and is famously in remarkably good shape for a man of his age.
Bieber, meanwhile, has received backing previously from his friend Mayweather.
But it would be far more remarkable than Mayweather-McGregor if White really were able to make a spectacle out of Bieber's baffling tweet.