Promoter Bob Arum is not one to let a few sour words spoil a lucrative business opportunity.

The 90-year-old founder of Top Rank Inc. said he would be willing to work alongside UFC boss Dana White in a promoting a potential crossover bout between WBC heavyweight titlist Tyson Fury, Arum’s charge, and UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, despite the fact that Arum does not have the best of relations with White.

Both Fury and Ngannou have publicly declared their desire to fight each other sometime in 2023. Fury, the Manchester, England native, has a scheduled fight against mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte on April 23 at Wembley Stadium in London. Ngannou, who hails from Cameroon, is coming off knee surgery after his win over Ciryl Gane in January.

Arum, who co-promotes Fury with Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions, said he has never met the outspoken White in person and furthermore does not see why some supposed bad blood has to get in the way of a business collaboration. Arum sees a Fury-Ngannou fight potentially taking place at the state-of-the-art Allegiant's Stadium in Las Vegas, the home of the Las Vegas Raiders.

“The truth is I’ve never ever met Dana White,” Arum said. “I’ve never talked to him. I’ve never had any interaction with him. He said a lot of bad things about me. I’ve said a lot of bad things about UFC, I believe, so it is what it is. But I would think if there’s a big event, particularly one that we can put on at Allegiant’s Stadium (in Las Vegas) I think White would be right there. Wouldn’t bother me working on a big fight.”

Arum admitted that he has been a bit befuddled by White’s strong comments over the past several years. White has frequently used the f-bomb to describe the veteran promoter and fellow Las Vegas resident. One thing is for sure, Arum believes the animus is completely one-sided, and, what's more, it isn’t emanating from his direction.

“There is [animosity] but I don’t know where it’s coming from, because I don’t even know the guy,” Arum said. “I never ever, ever even said hello to him or had a conversation with him or anything like that. I don’t know the guy. Why he’s taking a dislike to me – maybe it’s what he’s read – I don’t know. But it’s obvious there’s animosity there. For me on my part there’s no animosity.”

 A Fury-Ngannou fight would generate big bucks, but Ngannou’s participation will likely depend on the kind of contract we can prise out of the UFC. Ngannou has been at a standstill with White in getting his contract renewed. In Arum’s view, having White, the face of the UFC, on board the promotion will only benefit the event as a whole.

“I think absolutely we’d want that to happen,” Arum said. “Yeah, why not? That would be a great thing to happen. I think the MMA guy has an ACL that has been operated on. So he’ll be ready next year. That fight will do absolute tremendous business. If he has a contact still with UFC – which I don't know if does or doesn’t – to do it in conjunction with Dana White would add to the drama and momentum for that fight. It would do record numbers.

“I’m sure if that fight came to fruition and if the UFC was still somehow contractually involved...we’d have to talk. I’m sure we would talk.”