President Donald Trump has previously said that he wants to hold a UFC match on the White House lawn during next year's national day celebrations.
Each of our national parks, battlefields and historic sites will have special events to honor America 250. And I think we will even have a UFC match, said Trump in early July.
Trump and White are friends from before and the president has been in place as a spectator at several fights over the years. White was also invited on stage to talk briefly during Trump's victory speech after he won the election in November 2024.
Dana started in UFC and came to me. I hope it's okay if I use your name, nobody wanted to give him a chance because they said it's a tough sport, a bit tough. And I helped him a little and I said: "This is the toughest sport I've ever seen." But I started to like it and he loved it. And nobody has done a better job in the sport than him, said Trump then.
In the early 2000s, UFC was on its way to going under. It had been called "human cockfighting" by Senator John McCain and MMA was considered too violent for most sports arenas.
But in 2001, Trump helped the sport survive and allowed UFC to use the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City in New Jersey for their galas.
Now UFC is the largest MMA organization in the world with a value of around 122 billion kronor and has virtually monopoly status in the sport.
