UFC President Dana White credits rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as the individual who got the ball rolling on the 2017 crossover blockbuster between five division world champion Floyd Mayweather and UFC superstar Conor McGregor.

The bout became the second most lucrative pay-per-view event in history with over 4 million buys.

In a fight that nobody thought would ever happen, Mayweather came out of retirement to stop McGregor in the tenth round at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

White admits that he never thought the idea of that contest would come off - but then the demand for it became so massive that he had to make the fight.

"I felt the demand for McGregor vs Mayweather, felt it, I knew it would be big, so we started talking," White told ESPN . “I bumped into 50 Cent in New York, and he said, ‘Floyd wants to fight your boy.’ I said, ‘My boy who?’

“He's like, ‘The Irish kid.’ And I'm like, ‘He'll kill him,’ because I'm thinking MMA. He said, ‘We'll box him.’ I said, ‘You guys are crazy.’ He said, ‘He's serious. I'll call him right now.’ And then that's how it all really got started. And then everywhere I went, it was all anybody asked me about. Then once I started to really feel it, that's when I started to take it serious, and I made an offer.”

Mayweather is now in talks with White, with the two of them possibly coming together for some event in November - where Mayweather could once again compete in the ring, but there is no telling if it's actually going to be a sanctioned fight.

"We both started talking. The easiest way to explain it to you is Floyd and I both feel that we add value to each other, and we're going to figure something out. Some things have to play out, and then I'm going to start talking to [Mayweather's advisor Al] Haymon maybe this summer and then I'll have something for Floyd in the fall. We can do some crossover stuff here, or we can do something in boxing,' White said.