UFC Freedom 250 is done and dusted. But Dana White continues to get phone calls about how successful the event was. During the post-fight press conference on Sunday, the UFC CEO revealed a phone call from Paramount Skydance president David Ellison, raving about how monstrous the event was. So, he later claimed that the White House event isn’t the last collaboration the company will do with US President Donald Trump, who turned 80 tonight.

During the press conference, a reporter asked White whether the UFC would be open to similarly staging future events, specifically referencing the military escorts who accompanied fighters during their walkouts. 

“The president and I are talking about doing a ‘Fight for the Troops’ next year,” White said. “So, obviously, if we did a ‘Fight for the Troops,’ we’d do all that kind of stuff. We did a lot of them in the past. We used to work with the Fisher family, who were very dialed in with the military and could get things done easily. It’s not easy to get things done on military bases and things like that. 

“But when we have the Fisher family, and then obviously, the president can make a lot of things happen. So we’re talking about doing it next year. He wanted to do it this year, and I said, ‘Sir, I need a year to recover financially from the White House fight, so give me a year.”

The financial setback Dana White is referring to is the massive spending that went into setting up the Freedom 250 card. TKO Group, UFC’s parent company, reportedly spent $60 million on the event, expecting to offset $30 million of that from sponsorships. They are now also tasked with paying the repair bill for the severely damaged grass on the White House South Lawn. So, it may take nearly a year to make that money back. 

Still, the immense visibility the event provided is invaluable. While Paramount is yet to reveal the viewership numbers, the fact that the event was making national and global headlines reflects its scale and marketing. Yet, once the UFC and Dana White are ready, they clearly won’t back down from working with Donald Trump again, especially since White has been a close ally of Trump. 

And if and when it does happen, it won’t be something new for the UFC. 

Dana White plans to return to the golden days of UFC

When Dana White says, ‘We used to do Fight for the Troops,’ he is referring to the 2008 era when the UFC was under the Fertitta brothers. In mid-2008, Vice Chairman of the Fisher House Foundation, Arnold Fisher, approached UFC co-founder Lorenzo Fertitta, leading to the creation of UFC’s ‘Fight for the Troops’ charitable events. 

In December 2008, UFC had its inaugural ‘Fight for the Troops’ event near Fort Bragg, North Carolina. And it raised funds for the Fisher House Foundation, an international nonprofit that provides complimentary quality-of-life services for active military members, veterans, and their families. The events lasted till 2013, having hosted three such events. 

Although the events came to an end, Dana White received the Sheldon Adelson Patriot Award in May 2009 from the Armed Forces Foundation for helping raise millions through the ‘Fight for the Troops’ events. There’s no doubt that if UFC returns to hosting such events, the company will receive much praise from the fans like they did before. 

At the end of the day, though, Dana White and Donald Trump have just spoken about such a possibility. And it’s yet to be seen if and when such an event actually comes together.