Dana White fled to Las Vegas after incident involving Whitey Bulger associate

Infamous Boston gangster Whitey Bulger is partly responsible for the modern iteration of the UFC.

Well, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but if it wasn't for Bulger and his criminal organization, UFC president Dana White may have never landed in Nevada.

During an episode of "The Herd" with Colin Cowherd, White explained how a terrifying meeting with Bulger's right-hand man caused him to flee to Las Vegas and eventually reconnect with the Fertitta brothers.

As transcribed by FOX Sports' Damon Martin:

My partner and I, Peter (Welch), we ran a 'get kids off the street' program back there and we used to teach boxing classes, however we could make money, we made money. So one day I was teaching a class in one of the big clubs in South Boston and these two guys walked into the class and said "hey we need to talk to you." At first I'm thinking "does this guy own the club?" and when he asked me "do you know who I am?" that was when I realized what was going on.

He basically said "you owe us money." It was like $2500, which was like $25,000 to me back then and said "you owe us money." It was actually a guy named Kevin Weeks, who if you saw the trial he's Whitey's right-hand man. I'm sure he's very prominent in the movie, but yeah basically said I owed him some money, and I didn't pay him. This went on for a while and one day I was at my place and I got a call and they said "you owe us the money tomorrow by 1 o'clock." I literally hung up the phone, picked up the phone and called Delta and bought a ticket to Vegas.

White and the Fertitta brothers eventually bought the struggling UFC for $2 million, while Bulger - the subject of the upcoming movie "Black Mass" starring Johnny Depp - is currently serving two life sentences for multiple charges including 11 counts of murder, extortion, and money laundering.