White confirms FBI director’s interest in UFC team-up: ‘He’s dead serious’

UFC fighters get all sorts of opportunities to make a little extra cash outside the cage. Maybe it’s a Monster sponsorship or a Jose Cuervo commercial. And soon it could be a plum gig training FBI agents self-defense if Dana White and new FBI director Kash Patel have their way.

Patel generated lots of headlines and raised eyebrows last week when he suggested a partnership with UFC could help agents beef up their hand to hand combat abilities. The idea of getting law enforcement to train in combat sports like boxing and Brazilian jiu jitsu isn’t new at all, but looping in the UFC certainly is. And it’s no fleeting fancy.

Patel was cageside at UFC 313 and spoke to White about the idea.

“After he said that, my phone blew up … everybody wants to be the trainers of the FBI guys now,” White said. “I’ve got everybody hitting me up. But he’s dead serious about that. I talked about it tonight, he’s dead serious. So we’ll see how that starts to come together.”

This is just the latest example of the UFC continuing to be intertwined with the current Trump administration. White was a vocal supporter of the president through his first term and one of the few high profile people who supported him between terms and during the rocky road to his second electoral win. That earned him a speaker’s spot during Trump’s victory speech, which he used to thank his cadre of podcasting buddies for making everything possible.

In the first UFC pay-per-view following Trump’s win, the president-elect and half the power players in his incoming administration showed up cageside to celebrate. And now Trump’s FBI director Kash Patel is looking to integrate the organization into the training regiment for agents.

The promotion has certainly come a long way from events held in Dotham, Alabama that couldn’t even be bought alongside pornos on cable pay-per-view.