NBA icon Shaquille O’Neal was in attendance tonight in his former Miami home to take in the UFC 314 action, albeit without a ticket!
Shaq, a former center in the NBA, enjoyed a stellar career on the biggest courts in the country. And in the time since, has successfully turned his hand to analyst work on the professional basketball circuit.
Plying his trade with a host of teams, including the LA Lakers, Orlando Magic, and the Boston Celtics to round out his career, O’Neal has also enjoyed a stint in ‘The Sunshine State’ for the Miami Heat.
A massive combat sports fan to boot, O’Neal has also been in attendance for a slew of events in the past. So it’s not really a surprise to see him show up at the Kaseya Center tonight. But this appearance was anything but planned.
“I built this building [the Kaseya Center],” Shaq said. “I got a lot of friends — just don’t have any tickets. And they let me in. So, I think I got a lot of respect in this building”, the NBA analyst added.
— THE UFCGUY (@the_ufcguy) April 13, 2025
The Miami Heats Instagram account also responded to Shaq’s statement by posting a picture of him and letting him and the rest of the world know that he’s always welcome home.
Shaq has always had a soft spot for MMA and UFC. Earlier last year, he even teased Dana White, telling the UFC boss that he was training to get into the octagon very soon.
Even White wondered on the podcast what it would have been like if O’Neal had decided to trade his sneakers for gloves.
“Could you even imagine if all of his energy as a youth had gone just to MMA, what this could have been?” White said, “100% I mean this maniac used to call me all the time. ”
Notably, Shaq has also had a long-standing relationship with the promotion, having helped lift it up to the position it is in right now. The UFC boss has time and acknowledged his contributions to the business.
“Shaq did a lot of very good things for us early on when we were trying to build the UFC”, he said.
Elaborating further, the bossman revealed that when the promotion was launching the Ultimate Fighter, Shaq showed up to film one of the
“baddest commercials you will ever see.”
In return for lending his fame to the UFC, White has also gifted Shaq with something truly worthy of his name.
Only gift Shaq ever received
Shaq has a “diamond-studded” watch from White and Zuffa LLC leader, Lorenzo Fertitta for his efforts in promoting the organization.
“Dana is the only person I ever received a gift from,” O’Neal said.
“I don’t usually take it [the watch], that motherf**ker had so many diamonds, I had to take it.” Unfortunately for ‘Superman’, the whereabouts of that diamond-studded watch is currently a mystery.
Perhaps it is at one of his 10 houses across the United States.
Shaq is one of the many famous personalities who helped White build the sport at a time where athletic commissions were dismissing MMA as ‘human cockfighting’.
UFC President Donald Trump is said to have hosted the UFC at many of his hotels and casinos, while long-time commentator Joe Rogan did the first 15 events of his UFC contract for free, starting with UFC 12 back in 1997.
“‘Wait a minute. So you’re telling me I can come to the sport that I love the most in the world, have the best seat in the house, and talk about it on TV? I’m in!“- these were Rogan’s words, according to the UFC boss when he called him and asked him to call the fights.
Needless to say, all these entities continue to be a huge part of the UFC to this day.
