Donald Trump saved the UFC 

A new bombshell has fallen on the sports-media villa: Dana White cloaked in the glory of a whopping seven-year, $7.7 billion media-rights deal with Paramount to stream all UFC fights on Paramount+ in the United States and select simulcast events on CBS.

For the love of everyone’s wallets, goodbye Pay Per View and hello to a new right-wing cultural shift in mainstream sports coverage. 

Why is this new deal so relevant? Since the UFC’s inception in 1993, mixed martial arts existed as its own niche category. Critics openly said it wasn’t a real sport. They lampooned the more brutal style of MMA as less skilled and artistic than boxing, once a more revered American pastime. Even the late Senator John McCain of Arizona famously referred to the UFC as “human cockfighting” in the nineties. The sport struggled to even hold an event in its home city of Las Vegas. 

One outsider, however, did believe in it. It was a businessman who threw the UFC a life-saving bone and welcomed it to Atlantic City for a game-changing opportunity.

That lifesaver is the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

When everyone else gave little more than a passing glance to the UFC, Trump welcomed it to his Taj Mahal hotel and casino around the same time White, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta purchased the organization in 2001. Thus began the entrepreneurial and future presidential bromance of White, Trump and the legion of 70 million American voters who voted for him. 

As the sport gradually crept onto bar televisions and churned out such stars as Ronda Rousey, Conor McGregor, Anderson Silva and Jon Jones, White’s allegiance to Trump grew too. White appeared at the 2016 Republican National Convention, a relative newbie to the political world. He once briefly campaigned for Democrat and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. But with a fiery speech at that RNC, White shed any past party affiliation for Trump. 

“My name is Dana White. I am the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I’m sure most you are wondering, ‘What are you doing here?’” White said to the Cleveland RNC crowd. “I am not a politician. I am a fight promoter, but I was blown away and honored to be invited here tonight, and I wanted to show up and tell you about my friend – Donald Trump – the Donald Trump that I know.”

White continued the campaign favors into the 2024 RNC as well. In turn, Trump, a fan of the UFC, showed his support to White in 2020 when he filmed a video congratulating the sport for continuing to hold live events during Covid. He has also attended several events, making one of his most famous treks through Madison Square Garden following the election at UFC 309. The crowd erupted into chants of “USA,” and a video tribute showed Trump shaking his fist after an assassination attempt in July 2024.

When the President of the United States begins hiring UFC executives into his administration, that sport stops being a niche Spike TV creation. Despite liberal sneers at the sport, its so-called manosphere audience continues to grow. And there’s been a jump in female viewership as well. Six times, women have headlined the PPV preliminaries on Fox Sports 1, earning ratings ranking within the top 20.

Simply put, more and more people are watching the UFC, and the UFC loves the Donald. Trump’s even hosting a fight at the White House next Fourth of July. The sport will be synonymous with the image of America.

The backs and eyeballs of many Trump voters landed this lucrative deal. Maybe the Democrats should take note and stop minimizing the cultural relevance of the sport and its people. Not so deplorable after all.