Did Dana White’s Friendship With Trump Help Deliver a $7.7 Billion Bonanza for UFC?

The chances that President Trump will turn up at UFC319 at Chicago on Saturday are complicated by the uncertain schedule of his summit in Alaska, but it would not be out of character for him to drop by to help the UFC’s president, Dana White, celebrate the company’s new $7.7 billion deal with Paramount/Skydance.To what degree Mr. White’s close friendship with the president helped broker the jaw-dropping partnership between UFC and the streaming service is unknown. But the timing, the players, and the political chess involved suggest Mr. Trump took a keen interest in the outcome.“We have already learned that the president gets involved in all sorts of things,” a sports executive, David Samson, said this week on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “It would be an almost fiduciary irresponsible act for Dana to go forward and not involve the president.”Messrs. White and Trump are long-time friends. The president frequently attends UFC events, and it was Mr. White who introduced Mr. Trump at the Republican National Convention. Plans are also under way to stage a UFC fight card on the grounds of the White House next summer.“If you see where we started and where we came from, to be sitting here today having this conversation is one of the massive, major milestones in my career and the history of the sport,” Mr. White said on CBS. “It’s been a great week for me.”Mr. White confirmed that the UFC’s parent company, TKO Holdings, had explored partnering with several media platforms, including Netflix and Discovery, after its current deal with ESPN expires at the end of 2025. Skydance was apparently in the mix as well; the CEO of Skydance Media, David Ellison, was spotted at UFC events in April and July chatting with Messrs. White and Trump.At the time, Paramount was embroiled in a legal battle with Mr. Trump, who was suing the company for $10 billion in damages over a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump filed the lawsuit in November claiming the CBS flagship program was “partisan” and intended to “mislead the public and attempt to tip the scales” of the presidential election.Meanwhile, Paramount was trying to finalize an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, a deal that required the approval of the Trump administration.Facing a possible roadblock by the White House, Paramount agreed in July to a $16 million settlement with the president. On August 7, the merger of Paramount and Skydance was announced and promptly approved by the Trump administration.Once Paramount’s legal issues with Mr. Trump were settled and the merger completed, Skydance and UFC negotiated their deal within 48 hours, according to Mr. White.“These guys came in aggressive with an all-or-nothing approach and said, ‘We want the whole thing,’” Mr. White said. “The Ellisons are brilliant businessmen and have a whole game plan behind this thing. I can’t wait to be in business with them.”Mr. Samson, who served as president of the Miami Marlins between 2002 and 2017, questioned how a deal of that magnitude could be completed that quickly. “A deal like this, $7.7 billion, doesn’t happen in 48 hours,” Mr. Samson said. “It’s something that had to be talked about and contemplated. There’s boards to think about, there’s regulatory issues to think about.” The new media rights deal is worth $1.1 billion per year, putting it on par with media rights fees for Major League Baseball ($1.8 billion), the NCAA’s March Madness ($1.1 billion), and Nascar ($1.1 billion). The UFC’s current media rights deal with ESPN earns just less than $600 million per year.Despite initial reports that the new streaming deal would end Pay-Per-View events, like UFC 319, Mr. White clarified that there could still be a few standalone PPV events each year. The UFC has used the PPV model as its major revenue generator for marquee events since 1993. Perhaps it was no coincidence that Mr. White promptly confirmed the UFC event planned for the White House during next year’s Fourth of July celebration.“It’s definitely going to happen,” Mr. White said on CBS, adding, “I’m flying out there at the end of the month. I’m going to sit down and walk him through all the plans and the renderings and we’re going to start deciding what he wants and doesn’t want.”Mr. White confirmed he has been working on the event with the president’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, which should make politics, patriotism, and combat sports a lucrative endeavor.

Did Dana White’s Friendship With Trump Help Deliver a $7.7 Billion Bonanza for UFC?

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