"It was called twitter and Dana was encouraging everybody to do it" - Chael Sonnen details first-ever UFC Fighter Summit and Dana White's aim to help fighters structure finances

In a recently uploaded video, Chael Sonnen talked about Dana White and shared the story of what happened at the UFC's first ever fighter summit that took place in Las Vegas in 2009.

Sonnen shared how the summit was helpful to the fighters in attendance and how White aimed to help fighters in the financial aspect of their lives. 'The American Gangster' said that at the summit, the UFC president asked the fighters to be active on Twitter in order to grow their popularity.

"These were some of the most meaningful courses that I took... I was being given information on a level that I had nowhere else to get. I've never been given it since. It was extremely helpful...They branded these really good classes. Marketing classes, PR, there's something that had just come out, it was on the internet and it was called Twitter and Dana was encouraging everybody to do it," said Chael Sonnen.

You can watch Chael Sonnen talk about Dana White below:

Twitter now plays a huge role in the MMA world. Several athletes call out other fighters for a fight, and go back-and-forth trading jibes with each other. Fighters like Paulo Costa and Darren Till have also created a certain fan-following for themselves on Twitter by constantly posting humorous content on the site.

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Sean O'Malley praises Dana White for handling the UFC 279 fiasco

The fight week of UFC 279 was full of unexpected twists and turns. First, a backstage brawl involving Khamzat Chimaev, Nate Diaz and Kevin Holland resulted in the press conference getting canceled.

Later, Chimaev missed weight by 7.5 pounds, putting the main event in jeopardy. Instead of canceling the main event, the UFC did some re-shuffling and came up with three new matchups - Nate Diaz vs Tony Ferguson, Khamzat Chimaev vs Kevin Holland and Li Jingliang vs Daniel Rodriguez.

On a recent episode of 'The BrO'Malley' podcast, Sean O'Malley praised the UFC for saving the card. 'Suga' also commended White for the way he operates in the UFC.

"It's sweet that they got that f*cking done, for us fans to watch. Instead of being like, 'Well Nate and Khamzat are not fighting so now we just have Tony vs. Ji Ling and Kevin vs. D-Rod.' Like, that card would have sucked 'cause it's not a pay-per-view. The fact they could turn around and do that, we're so lucky that Dana White runs the UFC the way he does."

You can watch the full episode below: