Dana White got serious when describing Cristiano Ronaldo as a ‘humble’ man at UFC Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
Ronaldo was in attendance for the UFC‘s third event of 2025 as Israel Adesanya fell to his third straight loss against Nassourdine Imavov in the main event.
The former middleweight champion headlined a stacked card that also witnessed London’s Michael ‘Venom’ Page pump the breaks on the Shara Magomedov hype train with a unanimous decision win.
Ronaldo was spotted at various points of the night alongside White and Saudi Boxing Turki Alalshikh, who was highly praised for putting on both Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk fights.
A short video posted on X by Alalshikh around the halfway point of the main card shows Ronaldo describing his ‘love’ for the UFC.
“Everyone who knows me knows that I love UFC and I love Riyadh season, you do a fantastic show, congratulations guys.” he said.
White was asked about the 39-year-old during his debrief after UFC Saudi Arabia.
“I’m not a big soccer guy, but as far as superstars, I mean he’s one of the biggest superstars ever,” White, 55, said.
“You what I like about him too? As popular, as successful, and as wealthy as he’s become, he’s a very nice humble guy.
“I like him, he’s a very nice guy.”
White also revealed that Ronaldo was there to support Magomedov, who met up with the Portuguese star just days before his fight at Al Nassr’s training gorund.
Magomedov entered the fight with Page as a huge favourite due to his undefeated 15-0 record that included four straight wins inside the UFC.
And several members of the MMA world had touted him as a world champion in waiting, until Page proved the surging contender still has a lot to learn by handing him the first defeat of his career.
In the main event, Adesanya was sent tumbling to the canvas by a huge right hand from Imavov and then finished on the floor by heavy ground-and-pound midway through the second round.
Adesanya, who held the UFC middleweight title for three years between 2019 and 2022, has now suffered three consecutive defeats in White’s promotion.
Elsewhere on the Saudi main card, Mike Davis and Fares Ziam were covered in blood by the end of their gruelling fight.
The pair were the first fight on the UFC Saudi Arabia main card and left fans stunned after painting the canvas red.
Reacting to the gruesome scenes, one fan took to X and said: “It looks like something out of a horror movie.”
“How did he react? He was a fan of Shara,” White added, speaking on Ronaldo.
“They had met and he was rooting for him.”
Ronaldo was also spotted at cageside for a big heavyweight clash between Sergei Pavlovich and Jairzinho Rozenstruik, which the former won by unanimous decision.