- Andrew Tate commended Dana White for doing a tremendous job running the UFC
- The influencer clarified that he’s not officially retired from fighting
Ahead of his UFC 280 bantamweight bout against Petr Yan, Sean O’Malley visited Andrew Tate for a podcast session. In it, the controversial internet star talked about his past and current status as a professional fighter, and how he appreciates what Dana White has done for MMA fighters.
Not officially retired
According to Tate, he had 87 fights in kickboxing and five MMA fights. However, he didn’t make much money out of it, so he gives White the props for making the UFC a platform for fighters to make money on a regular basis.
As for how difficult was it to step away from the sport, Tate said there was not much drama as he was motivated to make money.
“It’s kind of interesting because I never really officially retired,” Tate told O’Malley on his YouTube channel. “And also, never really made that much money from fighting. I have to give huge credit to Dana because what he’s done with the UFC and the opportunity he gives guys now didn’t exist [back then]. I mean, I’m 36 I’m not that old right but I was at my Peak let’s say 10, 11 years ago it just didn’t exist back then. Like and the reason I ended up doing K1 or kickboxing as opposed to MMA.”
“I fought MMA five times but you could make the same money fighting K1, in fact more money fighting for K1 than you could in MMA but it was always annoying because it was eight-man tournaments, so they’d have this huge payday and you’d be like ‘yes but you had to fight like three times in a night’ and your shins would get all messed up and it was it was messy right, but so I stuck with kickboxing in K1, but I never made huge sums of money from it like it didn’t make me a millionaire I had a nice apartment and a nice car and that was about it and then I decided to take a year off to make some money so I didn’t officially retire,” he continued.
Dana is an OG
When discussing about the pandemic, Tate said it’s amazing how White managed to save the UFC and help MMA fighters keep their jobs amid the pandemic. The influencer also pointed out that despite the massive scare western countries have been spreading, the UFC boss trusted his gut and remained unfazed.
“They were telling you, ‘ignore your eyes! Be afraid’…That’s why I have so much respect for Dana. He didn’t care about none of that sh*t. [He’s like] ‘UFC is going on. Don’t care.’ OG!,” Tate said.
Having been a former kickboxer, Tate also has many friends and connections in the MMA world, including O’Malley and current bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling, who was previously bashed for hanging out with the internet star. And now that he confirmed he’s not officially retired, Tate might just shock the world and announce his return.
