UFC boss Dana White reveals he made $100k bet on Canelo Alvarez knocking out Caleb Plant and plays down crossover bout with Kamaru Usman in a champion vs champion fight

UFC president Dana White had his own event to run on Saturday night, but he couldn’t resist watching boxer Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez unify the super-middleweight division.

White was caught watching Canelo take on Caleb Plant while sitting at ringside for Rose Namajunas vs Zhang Weili and joked it was in his bank balance's interest to see who won.

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White won $40,000 on the result, revealing he bet $100,000 on a Canelo knockout.

After the event, he was asked about UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman’s comments earlier this week about wanting to face Canelo, who unified the super-middleweight division with his victory in Las Vegas.

Usman mentioned a crossover fight with Canelo and half of the appeal comes from trying to do something that scares the Nigerian Nightmare.

“You don't wanna fight Canelo.... C'mon man let's stop that s***.”

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“Talk about legacy, look what I’ve done to this point,” Usman said ahead of UFC 268.

“When I’m done and I walk away, guys are going to look back and say, ‘Wow, he was special.’ Just like we’ve done with some of the greats. So if I’m looking at legacy, I want to do something that’s never been done before. These guys don’t really scare me anymore.

“Of course, there is the fear of myself and not competing and not looking the way that I want to look but what scares me is since when have we ever seen pound-for-pound in both combat sports [fight in] their prime? We’ve never seen that. Wouldn’t the world love to see that? I know I would.”

Canelo had a simple response to the comments. “Payday,” he said with a smirk, suggesting that Usman was simply chasing one.

And he's not wrong, with Canelo reportedly taking home a guaranteed purse of $40m.

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But Usman still has a point - two pound-for-pound stars in combat sports colliding is intriguing.

Canelo may choose to stay at 168lbs and defend his title against David Benavidez and a few others, or he can move back up to light-heavyweight and take on dangerous foes like Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev.

For Usman, he has pretty much cleared out the welterweight division. If Leon Edwards can defeat Jorge Masvidal at UFC 269, he will certainly be the next challenger.

Usman did defeat Edwards in 2015, but both men are vastly different fighters now.

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