UFC President Dana White revealed that President Donald Trump gave a special assignment to a member of his inner circle for the proposed UFC event at the White House.
White appeared on “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday to discuss a new merger with Paramount, parent company of CBS, when he was asked about a possible UFC event on White House grounds.
The POTUS and UFC reportedly agreed in early July to a future event on federal property, but now that the UFC will simulcast some of its broadcasts on live television, the hosts at CBS were keen to find out if the White House event was officially on the books.
‘You have to tune in. It’s a destination.’
“It is definitely going to happen,” White told hosts, Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil, and Nate Burleson.
After the UFC president expressed how proud he was of his company’s new streaming deal, one of the hosts prompted him with rumors that a Trump confidant had been assigned to oversee the event.
“Word on the street is that Ivanka Trump is involved in this, is that true?” King asked.
White did not beat around the bush.
“When [Trump] called me and asked me to do it, he said, ‘I want Ivanka in the middle of this,’” White revealed.
The promoter added, “So Ivanka reached out to me, and her and I started talking about the possibilities. Where it would be, and I put together all the renderings.”
White said he had plans to show the president and Ivanka Trump all of the details when he meets with them at the end of August.
The 43-year-old first daughter may seem like an obscure choice to spearhead the event, but Ivanka has publicly shown that her family is deeply into martial arts. Boasting about the benefits jujitsu has provided her family, Ivanka even appeared in an ad for a martial arts gym in Miami Beach, Florida, in March.
While it remains unclear whether or not the event will air on CBS or on Paramount’s streaming service Paramount+, White said it certainly sounded good to have the UFC live on CBS from the White House on the 250th birthday of the United States.
The recent $7.7 billion deal between the UFC and Paramount is coupled with a $1.6 billion deal between ESPN and the WWE; the UFC and WWE are both operated by TKO Group Holdings.
Both agreements move away from pay-per-view models and will give streaming app customers access to the marquee events, with some of those events broadcasted on traditional cable channels like CBS and ESPN.
“If you see where we started and where we came from, to be sitting here today having this conversation with you is one of the massive major milestones in my career and in the history of the sport,” White told the CBS hosts.
Despite these moves, White said that he believes pay-per-view is still “very much alive.”
“With these streaming services, it absolutely makes sense. … Live sports, you have to watch live. You have to tune in. It’s a destination,” White concluded.
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