Dana White: Vince McMahon was 'very difficult in the past', but it's better now

It was pretty shocking when Ronda Rousey jumped into the pro wrestling ring with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson at WrestleMania 31. It was also huge news when WWE superstar Brock Lesnar made his return to the Octagon at UFC 200. Neither of these things would have happened if UFC president Dana White and WWE owner Vince McMahon couldn't come to a deal. And in a recent discussion about McMahon on Ric Flair's podcast, White admitted that things with Vince haven't always been great, but getting those deals done were good experiences for him (via Fox Sports):

"If you look at what Vince McMahon has accomplished in all of his years and to still be on top and still be doing it. The guy's got enough money, he's in it because he loves it, he's in it because he's still passionate about it. I would say that this last Brock deal and when Ronda went over did the WWE WrestleMania, those were the two out of all the years of dealing with Vince and everybody, those were probably the two best experiences."

...

"I think Vince and definitely Stephanie (McMahon) and Triple H - Stephanie and Triple H are always great, always cool to work with - Vince has been very difficult in the past but the past several years he's been much better."

"He's a f**king maniac, he's an animal, he's a competitor, he wants to win. That's his nature and I respect it."

It makes you wonder if this will lead to more crossovers between the two companies. There was much talk of a Paige VanZant appearance in WWE this summer, but it never came to fruition because Paige wanted to stick to training for her bout against Bec Rawlings and not have any outside distractions. Now that she picked up a huge TKO win, her stock is arguably as high as it has ever been, so the opportunity might still exist.

In addition to that, Conor McGregor's recent skewering of WWE superstars could maybe lead to something one day as well. We'll have to see if White and McMahon can continue to work well together.