Dana White rejects pitting Americans against foreigners

The UFC chief talks on NPR about his “global sport” and fighting at the White House.

Dana White built the Ultimate Fighting Championship from a marginal sport into a big business, and he’s preparing for another step up. On June 14, as part of America’s 250^th anniversary celebration, he will stage a UFC event on the White House lawn.

UFC fighters will punch, wrestle and kick while fenced inside an octagon. It will take place on the birthday of his friend President Trump, who has given White his opinion about who should be on the fight card.

White talked about this on the NPR program Newsmakers. We spoke May 8 at the Prudential Center, a sports arena in Newark, New Jersey where White was preparing for a different UFC event.

“We’re celebrating America’s 250th birthday on the lawn of the White House,” White said. “Everybody thought that I was going to build a card, America versus the world, where we did the exact opposite. America is a country of immigrants that all came from somewhere else and they’re all going to be represented.”

He said he rejected building a fight card that would pit Americans against foreigners, feeling it would misrepresent both the country and the UFC. “We are a global sport,” he said.

Here is the video, and below that are highlights of our conversation:

White is a onetime boxer who had an epiphany

“I realized that I wasn’t the guy,” he said. “You wouldn’t have seen me fighting in a title fight.” He became a fight manager instead, and eventually met the investors who helped him acquire the UFC.

He elevated the UFC beyond sports

Decades ago, the UFC’s mixed martial arts fighting was considered so disreputable that Senator John McCain called it “human cockfighting.” The sport’s fortunes changed thanks partly to Donald Trump, who welcomed White to stage fights in one of his Atlantic City casinos.

Today, White’s UFC occupies a sizable place in the culture. Its latest streaming deal, with Paramount+, is worth $7.7 billion over seven years. Joe Rogan, a former UFC color commentator, has become one of the nation’s top podcasters. The fighting itself expresses something about America in the age of Trump. It promotes a particular idea of masculinity. In 2024 White delivered a Republican convention speech for Trump, who performed well among young men—the demographic that forms the UFC’s core audience.

He also extended the UFC beyond America

The league’s fighters come from around the world, and also travel around the world to fight. The UFC event on May 30, immediately prior the White House spectacle, is to be held in Macau.

He oversees a combat sport with long-term hazards

White says with pride that the UFC has had “never a death or serious injury in 30 years,” but he knows that fighters risk long-term brain injury. Recently the UFC settled an antitrust lawsuit by fighters, one of whom said he needed the money to care for himself while suffering from CTE, a degenerative brain disease. “When you get punched in the head, it’s not good for you. And everybody going into this knows it’s not,” White said.

Some UFC fighters are immigrants and refugees

People who take that risk are often at the bottom of society—as is also true for many boxers, football players and other athletes. “People that are this tough come from tough backgrounds,” White said.

At a press conference before the Newark event, fighters spoke multiple languages while promotional videos showed their distinctive stories. On June 14, the headline fight will feature Ilia Topuria, the UFC lightweight champion, whose family were refugees from the republic of Georgia. His challenger is a former copper miner.

White dismissed any contradiction between his sport and the Trump administration, which has made a top priority of removing people without legal status from the country and has also canceled the legal status for many people who had it. White views his friend in the White House as opposed only to illegal immigration.

He’s selling a story

White said the hardscrabble backgrounds of his fighters draw fans to the sport. “Who are you and where do you come from?” he said. “That’s what I sell every Saturday night.”

It’s also what he will sell on Sunday, June 14—when the White House event will go on for a few thousand in-person spectators while many more can watch on screens from the National Mall.