White opens up about his decades-long friendship with Donald Trump, the UFC’s early struggles, and how a casual conversation led to a historic fight card at the White House.
Be sure to catch the full Boardroom Talks conversation with White on Boardroom’s YouTube page here.
There are very few full-circle moments in sports quite like this one. More than two decades after the UFC struggled to secure arena deals and fought to escape its outlaw reputation, Dana White is preparing to bring a fight card to the South Lawn of the White House, a reality that would’ve sounded completely impossible when he bought the company in 2001.
That journey, and the unlikely relationship that helped shape part of it, became the focus of White’s latest conversation with Rich Kleiman on Boardroom Talks.
Kleiman framed it best early in the discussion, pointing out that many people misunderstand White’s relationship with President Donald Trump. From the outside, it’s often viewed through a political lens. But according to White, the foundation was built long before Trump entered politics, back when the UFC was still fighting for legitimacy.
White candidly reflected on those early days. The UFC wasn’t just unpopular in mainstream sports circles; it carried a stigma. Venues worried about the type of audience the sport would attract, and pay-per-view providers wanted little to do with it. As White explained, there was a real belief at the time that mixed martial arts was too violent and too controversial to survive.
That’s what made Trump’s support stand out.
When few major venues wanted to host UFC events, Trump welcomed the promotion to the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. White still remembers Trump showing up for the fights personally — not for the main event or the cameras, but for the entire card. “He showed up from the first fight of the night and stayed till the last,” White recalled, a detail that clearly still matters to him all these years later.
Subscribe for the biggest stories in the business of sports and entertainment, daily.
It’s why the upcoming White House event feels bigger than just another headline-grabbing spectacle. In White’s mind, there’s a direct line between those early Taj Mahal events and what’s about to happen in Washington. And fittingly, the idea itself came together in classic Dana White fashion: casually, quickly, and with absolutely no hesitation.
White told Kleiman that during a recent UFC event, Trump leaned over and said, “We should do a fight at the White House.” White immediately agreed. By Monday morning, White said, the White House was already calling to begin sorting out logistics. Those logistics, according to White, have been even more complicated than UFC Sphere, the company’s groundbreaking production in Las Vegas that pushed the boundaries of what a live combat sports event could look like.
After the Sphere, White recalls wondering where the UFC could possibly go next. Now, somehow, the answer is the White House.
And after that?
“The moon,” White joked.
With Dana White, though, even the joke doesn’t sound completely out of reach.
Read More:
Interview: Larry Miller on the Naismith Legacy Award, Building Jordan Brand, and Why He Won’t Stop Giving Back
Dana White on Trump, UFC, Boxing, and Building a Sports Empire
Can Aaron Grimes Become the Next Black Golfer with a PGA Tour Card?
Interview: Eiza González on ‘In The Grey’ & the Beauty of Guy Ritchie Films
Every Drake Album, Ranked
