Dana White Offers Mayweather A Lifeline

Dana White has left the door open for Floyd Mayweather — and made clear their friendship has not been affected by the chaos surrounding the boxing legend's finances.

White addressed the mounting reports around Mayweather's legal and financial troubles, confirming he has spoken privately with the former pound-for-pound king about his situation while acknowledging he does not have full visibility on the severity of what is happening.

"Yeah that's a tough one. I've talked to him about it but I don't know enough about it. You hear all these different stories and I think you have to wait to see how this thing is going to play out in court for him.

“But when somebody works as hard as he did and amasses the type of wealth that he had and then they lose it, or it gets stolen or whatever the deal is it's horrible and it happens a lot in professional sports. So who knows? Anything is possible and maybe we could do something to figure it out for him,” White

Their friendship predates the 2017 McGregor-Mayweather super fight that generated over $600 million and remains the most commercially successful boxing event ever staged, and White's characterisation of their recent conversations as private and ongoing suggests the relationship has remained intact through the current turbulence.

Mayweather's situation has deteriorated publicly at a pace that would have seemed implausible twelve months ago. The Zambidis exhibition planned for Athens this weekend was blocked by a legal injunction. The Pacquiao rematch scheduled for September on Netflix has been cancelled.

A lawsuit from CSI Entertainment alleges he took $4.5 million for promotional rights before arranging separate deals with other parties. Two felony charges related to an allegedly bad check have been filed. Whether Mayweather reaches out is the next step. White has said the door is open.