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UFC boss Dana White says he's been told Tom Cruise would fight Justin Bieber

Dana White
Dana White. Michael Reaves/Getty Images

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The UFC boss Dana White said he's been told that Tom Cruise would have no problems fighting Justin Bieber in a cage.

A bizarre crossover bout between pop sensation Bieber and Hollywood tough guy Cruise first came about when Bieber posted a tweet on June 10 telling the world that he'd fight him in an Octagon.

Bieber, who is 25, goaded Cruise, 56, by saying if he turned down the challenge then it shows he's "scared" and that he'll never be able to "live it down."

The tweet attracted 40,000 comments, 45,000 retweets and has been liked 224,000 times.

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But Bieber has since backtracked, telling TMZ last week that he was "just playing," it "was just a random tweet," and that he'd need to "get in shape" because Cruise has "dad strength."

Read more: Bieber backed down from his Tom Cruise UFC challenge: 'He'd whoop my ass'

Well, it turns out Cruise isn't the playing type.

That's according to White, the fight company's president, who said he'd be "an idiot not to make this fight" during an interview with TMZ on Wednesday.

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"I'm going to tell you something interesting, OK. Lots of people will talk about fighting somebody in the UFC and things like that, whether it's NFL players or celebrities or whatever. It happens a lot.

"Obviously, I saw it like everybody else did, and I didn't pay much attention to it. It picked up a lot of steam and was everywhere.

"I'm not going to say any names, but I'm just going to tell you that I got a phone call from a couple of real guys who said that they really do want to do this fight and they believe that Tom Cruise would do the fight. And I told them, I'll tell you this: If that's true, and if everybody involved in this thing really wants to do it, we can talk."

Tom Cruise Justin Bieber UFC
Cruise is apparently rising to Bieber's challenge. AP Images

There's been a boon of weird fight suggestions in and around the UFC this year, with Conor McGregor famously saying he'd fight the minority UFC owner Mark Wahlberg for his shares earlier in the year.

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McGregor has since been warned about the threats by an unbeaten boxer Wahlberg manages and represents, the unbeaten American Regis Prograis, a light welterweight puncher from New Orleans.

Prograis challenged McGregor to a two-fight deal — one bout in a boxing ring and another in a UFC octagon.

Read more: An unbeaten boxer represented by Mark Wahlberg has issued an Instagram warning to McGregor

McGregor has had a crossover bout of his own when he took on the undefeated multiweight champion Floyd Mayweather, losing in the 10th round of a boxing-rules contest in 2017.

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Though the quality of the fight was poor, it remains one of the bestselling events in pay-per-view history.

Regardless, White believes a UFC fight between Bieber and Cruise would be even easier to promote.

"I'd be an idiot not to make this fight, OK," he said. "I didn't think Floyd-Conor was going to happen. Anything is possible. That would be the easiest fight to ever promote in the history of my career."

Tom Cruise Justin Bieber Dana White
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