Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel wants to cultivate a relationship with the UFC, suggesting that the world’s premier MMA league could help the Bureau’s agents improve their fitness, according to sources familiar with Patel’s teleconference call with FBI field offices this week.
According to four sources who claim to be familiar with the call, Patel mentioned the idea on Wednesday in a video teleconference with the 55 field office supervisors.
During the call, Patel mentioned that incoming Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino is a big UFC fan and convinced him to try the training. The new director very much liked the training he received and, according to the sources, believes it could also be valuable for FBI agents.
Some of the sources seem less convinced that the Bureau’s agents need help from Dana White.
“There is training the FBI receives in physical altercations,” a former Justice Department official said, speaking anonymously. “If Kash Patel believed that should be beefed up, the answer is not to go to Donald Trump’s best friend who runs the UFC.
“It’s clearly motivated by the glitz and glamour show and Trump’s friend.”
It’s unclear whether Patel envisions the partnership to increase the fighting skills of FBI agents, merely enhance their physical fitness, or both. In either event, it’s unclear how training offered by the most complete and well-rounded fighters could be construed as negative.
While Dana White’s cozy relationship with Donald Trump will draw some scrutiny, as it did from the source familiar with the call, the UFC is valued at over $12.3 billion. In other words, it doesn’t need an FBI contract to survive.
The sources claim Patel informed them that a dialogue with the UFC had already begun.
The post REPORT: FBI Director Kash Patel Wants UFC Partnership to Train Agents appeared first on Breitbart.
