Return to Transcripts main page
The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper
UFC at the White House. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 07, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:34]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Anderson Cooper. Welcome to THE WHOLE STORY.
In one week, President Trump will host a UFC event on the South Lawn of the White House. It's meant to honor the 250th anniversary of the founding of America, and it also falls on Trump's 80th birthday.
For those who haven't watched a UFC match, it's a mixed martial arts competition that's violent, often bloody. Punching and grappling, kicking and choking are all allowed. It's a highly competitive, very popular sport. It reaches an estimated 975 million households around the world.
The president was one of the earliest supporters of UFC before it became mainstream, and has a long standing relationship with its head, Dana White, who backed President Trump's campaigns. He's credited with helping steer young male voters in the president's direction.
In this next hour, CNN's Sara Snider digs into the intersection of sports and politics when it comes to UFC. She sits down with Dana White to talk about his role in the elections, and also gets a rare behind-the-scenes tour of the training center to see how the fighters are preparing and what they think about holding this competition at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL CHANDLER, UFC FIGHTER: Morning, guys. How are we?
When I'm in Florida, it's pretty much train, gym, grocery store, bodywork, gym. The secret in this sport, can you just keep doing the same thing over and over and over again? It's been the exact same place since I was 14 years old. Trained a couple times today to try to recover. Eat well. I don't even want to think about fighting on the White House lawn, because you don't want to lose yourself in the magnitude of the moment.
It's something that a lot of people doubted when they announced that it was going to happen, even myself. But really, it just needs to be distilled all the way down to the task at hand. It's a contest in a cage. It's a similar fight.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): To understand how the octagon ended up on the White House lawn, you have to go back to one man and a gamble almost everyone thought would fail.
People back then might have thought you were crazy.
DANA WHITE, UFC PRESIDENT AND CEO: Everybody thought we were crazy.
SIDNER (voice-over): Before the sold out arenas. Before the pay-per- view records. Before the White House, there was this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is brutal competition. There may be some blood spilled. There may be some bones broken.
SIDNER (voice-over): The UFC of the early '90s had almost no rules.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch the head butt.
SIDNER (voice-over): No time limits. No weight classes. Any discipline. Any fighter. A boxer could face a sumo wrestler. A karate champion could face a jujitsu master. It looks brutal, even barbaric. But underneath the spectacle, something new emerged.
WHITE: What they did that they didn't expect to do is they actually created not only a new sport, but a new style of fighting. A style of fighting that Bruce Lee was talking about in the '60s. And the first pay-per-view went off. And it did such big numbers that, you know, rivaled big boxing and WWE events at the time.
SIDNER: You purchased the UFC franchise with some buddies for about $2 million?
WHITE: Yes, $2 million in 2001.
SIDNER: At that time, I think it was banned in like 36 states.
WHITE: Yes.
SIDNER: Because someone called it like human cockfighting.
WHITE: Senator John McCain. Yes.
SIDNER (voice-over): And he meant it as a death sentence.
JOHN MCCAIN, LATE REPUBLICAN SENATOR FROM ARIZONA: We don't let roosters engage in cockfighting. We don't allow dogs to fight pitbulls. We don't allow human beings to go out in the street and engage in this kind of activity. We call it disturbing the peace.
SIDNER (voice-over): McCain wrote letters to the governors of all 50 states urging them to ban the sport.
[20:05:04]
By the late 1990s, 36 states did.
Was he right? Like when you look back at the sport that you bought, was he correct?
WHITE: Yes. So what we did is we ran toward regulation. We wanted to be regulated by the Athletic Commission, basically by the government. So this many people want to see a freak show. This many people want to see a real sport with real athletes and find out who is the best in the world in each weight class.
SIDNER: What did that mean? Like, what are the regulations that came into place so that UFC can still exist now and not be banned?
WHITE: If we go into the state of Nevada, we are regulated by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. They oversee the event and make sure that it's done right. The fighters get paid, proper medical procedures are put in place. So we did that not just state by state, but in other countries, too, around the world.
We want to make this the Super Bowl of mixed martial arts.
SIDNER (voice-over): Yet even with new regulations in place, the UFC was still toxic to the mainstream. No major venue would touch it. No major sponsor would go near it.
WHITE: When we bought it, our goal was to get it on the free television, which again, everybody thought that was insane, too. The Fertitta brothers were my partners and they're big casino owners and literally we were the redheaded stepchild of the Fertitta portfolio, like all the guys that work for them on the investment side thought that this was a horrible investment because if you couldn't get it on pay-per-view.
And then you got to think about venues. No venues wanted it either because there was a stigma attached to the sport.
SIDNER (voice-over): As UFC struggled to find a foothold in mainstream America, an ally emerged in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2001.
WHITE: Donald Trump owned the Taj Mahal and several other casinos at the time, and he saw the potential in the sport. We ended up doing a deal with him at the Trump Taj Mahal.
SIDNER (voice-over): Donald Trump offered his Atlantic City properties when no one else would.
WHITE: When you think about Trump brand then, right, and UFC brand then, he came to the first fight of the night and stayed until the last fight of the night. And we did our first two events, 30 and 31 with him.
SIDNER (voice-over): It was the beginning of a partnership that would last more than two decades and end up somewhere neither man could have fully anticipated. Today, UFC reaches an estimated 975 million households across 170 countries. It sells out arenas on six continents. It's one of the most watched sports properties on earth.
How much is it worth now?
WHITE: I haven't looked lately. I don't really pay attention to that, but it's in the double-digit billions.
SIDNER: Double-digit billions from a $2 million investment.
WHITE: Yes.
SIDNER: I mean, that's not bad.
WHITE: It worked out.
SIDNER: Who are your spectators?
WHITE: Our fan is just about anybody. I've been dragged into this whole manosphere thing. Toxic masculinity and you name it, it's all been thrown my way. I'm in the fight business.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:10:56]
SIDNER: I'm in Las Vegas. I am heading into the UFC headquarters. Full disclosure it's not because I'm a big fan, but I am curious and maybe like you, because an ultimate fighting championship is going to play out on the White House lawn.
FORREST GRIFFIN, VP, ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT, UFC PERFORMANCE INSTITUTE: This tour could take forever.
SIDNER: Should I change?
(Voice-over): Forrest Griffin was once a UFC champion. His photos lined the walls here, and now he helps run the place.
This is a huge facility. Did it exist when you were fighting?
GRIFFIN: No. No, it didn't. We were trying to piece it together. The secret sauce that we have is that everybody talks to everybody. We interact with, I want to say, 87 percent of all 700 guys and gals on the roster. So it's pretty impressive numbers.
SIDNER (voice-over): The sport that once operated on the fringes now has a whole campus. They call it the Performance Institute, and it's more than a fight gym. It's also a state-of-the-art science lab with cryotherapy, altitude training, biomechanics analysis, and full-time nutritionists.
This might be my favorite place because I smell food. What is it that the athletes, that the fighters are eating specifically?
GRIFFIN: Their food is set up by a dietetics team and it's absolutely at no cost. So we have fighters from 78 different countries. Think about the regions, the religions, what they eat, their food preferences. It's a weight class sport, right? So it's a whole different beast.
SIDNER: This is your domain. What is it here? GRIFFIN: This is it. So let's start with the most important thing is
the octagon. This is the 30-foot octagon. Over there, you have the 25- foot octagon.
SIDNER: Can you tell me what it's like in there, in the cage? What is that like?
GRIFFIN: For me, that is my happy place. I don't think about, is my wife mad at me? I think about the person trying to punch me in the face. And then all that other stuff in your life. The noise is really drowned out. And that is what, day one, even though I got beat up, I loved it. And then I got beat up a little less every time.
I appreciate you guys coming out so much. This is the best moment of my life.
SIDNER: How many sports does your body need to know to do to be a UFC fighter?
GRIFFIN: You got to be able to box, kickbox, stand-up fight, all the kicking and punching, right? You got to be able to wrestle, judo, all that stuff. I mean, you got to be able to fight on the ground. So you have like almost three separate arcs that you have to master.
WHITE: If you look at what we have done with the fight business in the last 25 years, it's -- I mean, just what you experienced at the Performance Institute. It's the most phenomenal business story ever. And now I'm getting into boxing. Just launched the Jujitsu League and Power Slap. Every way that somebody can kick somebody's ass, and we have the WWE, too.
SIDNER (voice-over): Alongside the sport, he assembled an audience that are mostly younger and male. Many of the fans say they're drawn to the thrill of the physical competition, but there's no doubt the sport is bloody and violent, which is also a draw, especially now.
LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, POLITICAL HISTORIAN: There's this really deep crisis of masculinity that is happening amongst young men. One of the ways that people have really been attacking this is through sports. We really have seen young men rally around the space of football, of baseball, of basketball. But increasingly, because it is one of the fastest growing sports within the United States, mixed martial arts.
As they become attracted, watching these gladiators fight one another in controlled environments, they become part of a larger community that has currency because of its real life, tangible connection. MAGA has tapped into that world in terms of they are fans and spectators of UFC.
SIDNER: Who are your spectators? Like when you look at, like who are they? Do you have a sense of who?
[20:15:03]
WHITE: We have everything from -- it's crazy because from college kids to doctors to lawyers to women, housewives, I mean, you name it, the sport has grown so much that our fan is just about anybody. I've been dragged into this whole manosphere thing and toxic masculinity and you name it, it's all been thrown my way. I'm in the fight business.
SIDNER: You mentioned the manosphere so now I'm going there.
WHITE: Yes.
SIDNER: You brought it up.
WHITE: I walked into this one.
SIDNER: You walked right into it.
WHITE: Yes.
SIDNER: For those who may not be familiar, of course, conglomerate of different dudes that are online, that a lot of people saw, Joe Rogan, for example, who I know you know well. Saw as, you know, promoting Donald Trump and helped him win the presidency. Is that how you saw it? Did you introduce him to sort of this manosphere, that this sort of to go on podcast as opposed to, you know, doing your typical interviews?
WHITE: Yes. Well, I felt like that if the president stayed on FOX, he wasn't going to win. And, you know, every other network out there was saying horrible things about him. So what I do know is he can sit on a three-hour podcast and be relatable to a lot of people.
JOE ROGAN, HOST, "THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE": We're rolling. Good to see you. Here we go.
SIDNER (voice-over): The podcast Dana White pointed Donald Trump toward, "The Joe Rogan Experience." It reaches an estimated 14 million subscribers per episode. Rogan was a UFC commentator first, and still is. And so it's no surprise his audience overlaps with UFC fans, mostly young men who turned out in large numbers for President Trump in 2024.
Do you think it's good for business or bad for business that that relationship exists and that people see it as a Trump sport, a MAGA sport, as opposed to just a sport?
WHITE: I don't know, and I don't know if that's how people really see it. I think that people on the far-left are going to see it that way. And there's probably no changing their mind about that. This sport is for everybody.
SIDNER: The audiences are huge. I was asking just some of my friends, mostly men, but there are some women, like, do you watch this? Is this something that you're into? And most of them said yes.
KARIM ZIDAN, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: MMA, mixed martial arts, is one of the most technical sports that exist. You might just see nothing but the violence of it. But sometimes they continue to surprise you. When see people perform at their best, a fighter at their peak, you know, it's not even sometimes just the punches being thrown and landing, but the way they're able to avoid punches. The reflexes involved, the core strength.
SIDNER (voice-over): Karim Zidan has spent years reporting on the intersection of combat sports and political power. Drawn in at first as a fan and then as a journalist.
ZIDAN: I grew up in Egypt and the world of sports and politics is not something you could avoid back home. When I moved to Canada, I discovered the sport called mixed martial arts. I went and decided I wanted to interview this Russian oligarch who ran the oldest MMA promotion in Russia. And we did. And during that interview, he stops in the middle to tell me, hey, Karim, I really like your voice. Do you want to come do commentary for me in Russia?
SIDNER: So a Russian oligarch says to you, hey, we've got something we'd like you to do. Like a job for you basically.
ZIDAN: Yes. And I immediately said, yes, let's do it. I had no idea what to expect. So when I started seeing all these shady figures interacting with the sports, we're talking gangsters, right? We're talking military officials, Kremlin officials, you know, Putin's circle of oligarchs. And how fascinated they were with mixed martial arts. It became clear to me that there was something deeper with the sport.
SIDNER (voice-over): And very much like Putin showing strength through sport, he sees the same thing playing out in the United States.
We've spoken to a couple of fighters and they're like, we're not involved in politics. And they will -- they are adamant because their focus is, you're laughing, but their focus is I'm just trying to win a fight and I'm trying to feed my family literally.
ZIDAN: If you've had UFC fighters who became ambassadors for this Chechen warlord who's purging gay men, and that's all they had to say for themselves, too. They're not involved in politics. That's all they have to say for themselves.
SIDNER (voice-over): He's referring to Ramzan Kadyrov, the notorious leader of Chechnya, sanctioned by the United States government and routinely criticized for alleged human rights violations, including the persecution of gay men. In 2023, CNN reported that multiple UFC fighters had appeared publicly with Kadyrov and trained within his MMA network. The UFC denied any direct relationship with him or sanctioned organizations.
WHITE: You are the ultimate fighter.
[20:20:01]
SIDNER: Let me ask you about your history. You have a political science degree?
GRIFFIN: Yes.
SIDNER: Do you worry about politics and sport intertwining? Do you think the sport is intertwined with politics? GRIFFIN: At some point, right, yes. Like right now. I mean, Dana White
--
SIDNER: You're going to be at the White House.
GRIFFIN: Well, yes. They're going to be at the White House.
WHITE: We're going to vote Donald J. Trump as the 47th president.
GRIFFIN: Dana White, my boss, spoke for the president, you know, that is --
SIDNER: They're friends.
GRIFFIN: Yes.
SIDNER: He campaigned for him. Do you worry about that?
GRIFFIN: I'm so biased from the UFC standpoint. I'm like, you know, what party are you? I'm party MMA. What's best for the sport of MMA? So I vote MMA.
WHITE: We are truly, other than soccer, we're like the number two global sport in the world. You probably couldn't pick a country that I couldn't say, I mean, we're going to Azerbaijan. And like three or four other guys on the car in Azerbaijan.
SIDNER (voice-over): Seven fighters, more than 80 countries, an enormous audience. And by 2024, real political influence. But inside the cage, none of that matters.
M. CHANDLER: The goal is to separate them from some consciousness. The goal is to possibly break a limb.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:26:05]
BRIE CHANDLER, WIFE: He's a beast. I know he physically can handle it. And nothing, thank God, has ever horribly happened to him. But of course, in the fight, I'm concerned. When you have children at home, you're like, this is their dad that they're, like, going to see that we sacrifice his home for our family. And he's such a good man and he just -- it's the emotional for me. He holds himself to such a high standard. He feels guilty he left the family.
SIDNER: I've seen what some of your workouts look like.
M. CHANDLER: Empty the tank.
SIDNER: I would say brutal.
M. CHANDLER: Yes, brutal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iron Michael Chandler. SIDNER (voice-over): Dubbed "Iron" by fans, 40-year-old Michael
Chandler is ranked 13th in the UFC Lightweight Division and has spent nearly half of his life as a professional fighter.
M. CHANDLER: I think moderation is for cowards, you know? I throw myself into the fire just as hard as I can in order to increase my potential, increased my ceiling. You hit that point where you can't go any longer, and then you go a little bit further.
SIDNER: You used to box.
WHITE: Yes. When I was growing up, you know, I had a lot of uncles that were around a lot. And they all used to watch the big fights, the Ali fights. And there was always this energy in the house when fights were on.
SIDNER: What got you out of it?
WHITE: I saw this guy in the gym. The sad story of, you know, boxers and as they get older and what starts to happen, I saw him and I said, what would happened if that happened to me? And that was the day that I realized you're not it.
SIDNER: Have you ever had your brain checked?
WHITE: Yes. Yes. I got spots all over my brain. So I've done the thing where --
SIDNER: Whoa, whoa, whoa. You have spots all over your brain?
WHITE: Oh, yes. So anytime that you have trauma to your brain, it shows up on a scan.
SIDNER: Are you worried about CTE for yourself?
WHITE: No.
SIDNER: No?
WHITE: No. I wouldn't take back one punch. I loved every minute of it. So there's no secrets to getting punched in the head is bad for you. And some people are susceptible to that. To becoming punch drunk, it's part of the business that we all understand going in. And there have been times where we start to see guys, and I say, I think it's time for you to hang it up.
SIDNER: Really? You've said that to a fighter?
WHITE: Oh, many times over the last 25 years.
GRIFFIN: I like that fast walk, I love it.
SIDNER (voice-over): No one we spoke to in the UFC denies the risk.
GRIFFIN: This is not your forever job. You know?
SIDNER: Your first fight, you said you destroyed your shoulder. I mean, how did you end --
GRIFF: Yes, it came out and it looks like, that's not right.
SIDNER: What sacrifices have you made to be a part of this sport?
GRIFFIN: I got to get my knee replaced. I need my shoulder replaced.
SIDNER: Your ears tell me you've been hit.
GRIFFIN: Yes. Yes.
SIDNER: Quite a few times in the head.
GRIFFIN: Yes. I've been knocked out in front of millions of people. It happens. I've been in the Cleveland brain health study for nine years, and I'm proud to say that my mental decline is within normal parameters.
SIDNER: Hi.
CHARLES STULL, NUTRITIONIST, UFC PERFORMANCE INSTITUTE: How you doing?
SIDNER: Charles, right?
STULL: Yes.
SIDNER: Sara.
STULL: Pleasure to meet you. You've stumbled into the Performance Nutrition Diagnostics Labs. When an athlete gets a concussion, their resting metabolic needs can increase to 140 percent. The brain needs energy to repair.
SIDNER: Is there something nutritionally that can be done to help protect your brain?
STULL: Absolutely. The strongest evidence is around quality Omega-3 supplementation, higher dose creatine and phytonutrients. And by phytonutrients I mean rich colors.
SIDNER: OK. So like beets.
STULL: Purples. Yes.
SIDNER: And cabbage. Purple cabbage.
STULL: Yes, things that are colorful. Yes. And natural. These things can modulate the inflammatory cytokines and improve the recovery of the brain.
[20:30:01]
SIDNER: Forrest, what am I in for here, buddy?
GRIFFIN: I'm not 100 percent sure.
SIDNER: Oh, great.
GRIFFIN: This should be OK.
SIDNER: Yes.
GRIFFIN: If something hurts, don't do it.
SIDNER: That's not what you tell the fighters.
GRIFFIN: Well, I tell them if it hurts, they are probably in the wrong line of work. All right. So you want to glove up?
SIDNER: We're fighting.
(Voice-over): Michael Chandler helped make the UFC mainstream. Steve Garcia, a featherweight contender, will throw the first punch on the White House lawn.
STEVE GARCIA, UFC FIGHTER: Try that mushroom. There we go. That's better.
SIDNER: Would you want your son to be a UFC fighter?
GARCIA: No.
SIDNER: That was quick. Why?
GARCIA: Let me do the fighting. It's a lot of pain. It's a lot of suffering.
SIDNER: How many times have you been injured?
GARCIA: All the time. I've had staples in my head. Black eyes all the time. Bloody noses. I've torn both my meniscus in both my knees, broken my hand a couple times, my wrist, sprained in both my ankles, fracturing the rib. A lot of us we just have to expedite the process as a fighter, because we have to get to our next fight.
SIDNER (voice-over): The physical risk is high, but so is the potential reward.
Some guys are making a million plus per fight and other guys are making $12,000 per fight? Does that need to change?
WHITE: No. So when you come in, right, if you're making $12,000, you're new. How do we even know if you're good enough to be here? You have to fight your way up into the rankings. It's no different than, you know, you play triple-A ball. Some guys make it, and some guys don't. You make it in the NFL or you don't make it in the NFL.
SIDNER: But your knee and limb is broken. Right?
WHITE: We got to find out if you belong here. I'm not going to pay $1 million to find out if you belong here.
M. CHANDLER: The upside is massive now. You can pour yourself fully into this thing. And there's an avenue and a lane to become a massive star. Make millions of dollars and provide for your family.
SIDNER (voice-over): Still, success comes at a cost.
M. CHANDLER: Batman, when you see him coming underneath, go to his hip pocket.
SIDNER (voice-over): Home for Michael Chandler is in Nashville, Tennessee, 900 miles from the gym.
How often do you get home to the kids and get to do this?
M. CHANDLER: Every weekend. I made the decision probably eight years ago. Well, when we adopted Hap, that I was going to fly home every weekend just to be with the family. And if my career suffers, so be it. When I'm not there, when he loses a baseball game, he loses a football game, or has a hard day at school, something is missing. Even if they can't describe it with their words, subconsciously something is missing because dad isn't there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's he going?
B. CHANDLER: He's going back to Florida.
M. CHANDLER: Can you believe it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again?
B. CHANDLER: Again?
M. CHANDLER: Again, I know. Love you. Love you, played a good game today. Love you.
SIDNER (voice-over): Back to the gym, 10 more days of training before he fights at the most iconic building in America. One that is meant to represent not just the president, but the people of the United States.
The UFC is at the White House. Isn't that political just being there?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:38:31]
SIDNER (voice-over): It's fight night. President Trump struts into the arena in New Jersey. He loves this sport. But there is something curious about the timing of the president's highly visible visits. Since winning the 2024 the president has attended three UFC fights. Each time after a politically explosive decision or incident.
On this night, for example, he made his first public appearance after being convicted of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records. Just 48 hours prior to the fight. Here he is after sending a large ICE presence to Los Angeles sparking protests. And again, as peace talks failed in the midst of the Iran war.
WHITE: So to look at us and say, oh, you're political, you're this. This man is my friend. Through wins, through losses, through ups, through downs, through things he says. Things he doesn't say. This guy has been a really good friend to me and that's the bottom line. Donald Trump and I, who happens to be the president of the United States, is one of my very good friends.
SIDNER: There's a dual loyalty, do you think there?
WHITE: A hundred percent.
ZIDAN: The UFC is Donald Trump's safe space. It is the place he can go where no matter how the world treats him, no matter how much his polls are collapsing, it is a place where he can go to feel like a champion.
[20:40:01]
SIDNER: As you were covering Putin and all of those who were involved in MMA there, do you see a parallel with UFC and sort of the MMA world here?
ZIDAN: Absolutely. Absolutely. Putin set the blueprint for how future strongmen, politicians who you name would interact with the sports of mixed martial arts. This is a man who is a judoka and he's a black belt in judo. And I mean, one of the very popular things you'd see on TV in Russia is videos of him flipping other black belts. I mean, that was a standard PR photo opportunity for Vladimir Putin. And it was a way to present himself as not just a strong leader, but somebody who can rule the country.
SIDNER: If you go back in history, you see sports has in time been used by authoritarian governments like Mussolini to show power, to show strength, to show control. Do you worry about the confluence of this sport in particular, and the Trump administration sort of being intertwined?
WHITE: I don't think like that.
SIDNER: But people might say, look, Trump is using the same playbook as a Mussolini or a Putin, right? Who, Putin is into judo. Right? And he uses this as a way to show he's the strongman. He's the man. Do you see Trump using that same playbook or no?
WHITE: In politics that's the way it's always worked. It's not just Trump. It's been like that since the beginning of time and it will be until the end of time. It's not just one guy or one administration. It's everybody. And yes, sports has been used, you know, politically, you know, forever.
SIDNER: And your mixing is pretty obvious. There's a mix there with one group of people because of your friendship.
WHITE: Well, that's not true. I've been friends with this guy for 25 years.
SIDNER: Yes.
WHITE: It's not like every election there I am with the Republican Party saying, all right, let's -- it's not true. He was my friend when nobody thought he was going to win the election.
SIDNER (voice-over): Outside of these fighters, President Trump isn't the only one getting fans' attention here.
So I saw Andrew Tate just go by, and no one here seems to be concerned about the charges against him, trafficking and rape charges. In fact, you saw people coming down from the stands and trying to take pictures.
(Voice-over): Andrew Tate posted this footage on social media during the fight. The Tate brothers are former kickboxers and two of the most powerful figures in the online manosphere, attracting millions of young male followers with content that often glorifies male dominance and degrades women, and making statements like this one on Barstool Sports in 2022.
ANDREW TATE, SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER: I said that the most extreme intelligence, whether plus or minus, is going to be male. And my point is that, cool, well, if I have a woman and I'm responsible for her, which I want to be because it's my masculine imperative, I need some degree of authority.
SIDNER (voice-over): Now the brothers face criminal charges overseas, including rape and human trafficking. Charges they deny.
So this is where, play this video that you see.
WHITE: Welcome to the States, boys.
ZIDAN: Dana White actually welcomes Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan into a UFC event.
SIDNER (voice-over): The viral exchange sparked a major backlash.
He says --
ZIDAN: Did you hear that? "Welcome to the States, boys." Welcome to the States, boys. Because remember, they are facing it multiple, multiple charges in Romania. This is a horrible human being. His whole idea is dominating women, controlling women and pimping them out. This is horrific stuff. These influencers that are now sort of embodying modern masculinity, they're embracing the UFC as part of that, as part of the brand as far as they're concerned.
SIDNER (voice-over): At the fight, I asked Dana White about the Tates being there. He said, I don't control them. They can go anywhere they want. We have lots of people here. And they do. We also spotted members of the cast of "The Jersey Shore" that night, and the fans made clear they weren't thinking about any of this, especially not politics.
What do you say to people that are like, look, we're Democrats and we're not coming to this, his is a MAGA thing? What do you think?
JADEN, 21 YEARS OLD: Yes, I say, put the politics aside and have a good time. You know, it's like the end of the day, we have to be entertained. We're not here for that, you know?
CHRISTOPHER, 16 YEARS OLD: I mean, who doesn't like to see people get knocked out? You know, that's always entertaining. That's what I got to say to people.
SIDNER (voice-over): Though they admit seeing President Trump at UFC fights made them like him more.
Do you think the sport has helped Trump because he comes? You see him walking out with everyone.
AJ, 20 YEARS OLD: I mean, for our generation, I'd definitely say yes because he's with the people that we watch on TV are like, oh, my god, that's so cool.
MAX, 19 YEARS OLD: Which makes him likeable. The president's going out with us.
[20:45:02]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: God bless you and God bless America.
SIDNER (voice-over): The 2024 election revealed how much Trump's appeal among young men had grown. Men voted for Trump by roughly 11 to 13 points, a significant shift from 2020, when he won the male vote by about two points. Men under 30 began moving even further to the right.
In this interview to "The New Yorker," they asked you about politics and whether you wanted to dabble in politics anymore, and you said, and excuse my French, but you said, I'm never (EXPLETIVE DELETED) doing this again. I wanted nothing to do with this shit. It's gross. It's disgusting.
Have you changed your mind?
WHITE: No. It's very true. I nailed it. I nailed it. It is.
SIDNER: But intrinsically, you're doing an event. The UFC is at the White House. Isn't that political just being there?
WHITE: On June 14th, on one night and one night only.
So it's the 250th birthday of America. And if Obama, Clinton, Reagan, Bush called me up and said, I'd love to do an event at the White House for the 250th, 200th, 300th birthday of America, do you think I would say no?
SIDNER: I don't know. Would you?
WHITE: I would never say no.
SIDNER: A lot of people sort of credit Donald Trump's move with you in the UFC to getting that young male vote that helped him win the presidency the second time.
WHITE: Right.
SIDNER: Do you regret anything?
WHITE: Oh, no. No, not at all. He's a good person and he loves this country. And every American in it.
SIDNER: There are a lot of people that are going to push back on that.
WHITE: And that their right, and their opinion.
SIDNER: Yes.
WHITE: But as a guy who's been friends with him for many years and listen, I didn't -- I didn't get in this relationship with this guy thinking he's going to be the president of the United States, and I'm not looking to gain anything from him.
Face forward, boys. Face forward.
M. CHANDLER: How do you not talk about politics when you're talking about, well, the president of the United States, who is of one party, is throwing an event that skews toward that party on the White House lawn.
SIDNER (voice-over): One week from now.
M. CHANDLER: We're going to make an amazing party.
TRUMP: It's going to be great again. Yes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:51:49]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sugar Sean O'Malley. Ilia Topuria. Iron Michael Chandler.
WHITE: We couldn't have built a more perfect card. We're going to put on one of the most watched sporting events ever on the White House lawn on the 250th birthday of America.
SIDNER: I'm going to play semantics here because there are semantics. It's not happening on July 4th. It's happening on June 14th, which is the president's birthday. It's also Flag Day.
WHITE: Yes.
SIDNER: Is this a birthday present? How did that day become the day?
WHITE: It was supposed to be July 4th. Apparently, he didn't know his schedule. His team said he's flying like three different states on the Fourth of July. You can't do it that day.
SIDNER: Was it the president's idea?
WHITE: Yes. SIDNER: He called you up and asked you?
WHITE: Oh, he didn't call me. We were sitting at a fight, and he leans over, goes, what do you think about having a fight at the White House? I said, yes, I'm in. He says, this is America's house, and I would love to do things to bring more Americans to the White House to be able to enjoy it. And one of those things is the UFC. We are flipping the whole bill for this thing.
SIDNER: How much is this going to cost you?
WHITE: It's in the ballpark of 60-plus million dollars that we're spending on this. I can't sell a hot dog, a T-shirt or a ticket because it's federal land.
SIDNER: Sixty million bucks. That's a lot to shell out. Is that loyalty? Is that the history of it? Why would you shell out that much money?
WHITE: So it's a few things. It's obviously the president of the United States asked to have a UFC event there, number one. Number two, it's going to be the most watched UFC and one of the biggest watched sporting events. We're available in over a billion homes worldwide.
SIDNER: So it's a great marketing in some ways for you. Yes?
WHITE: That's incredible. I don't care if you're the furthest crazy left or the furthest crazy right or right down the middle. If you are an American, you will enjoy this show.
SIDNER: But the general public can't come strolling in there during this.
WHITE: No, but the majority of the people that will be there, our military. We'll have over 85,000 people there at the Ellipse, which is literally you can see the White House.
CRAIG BORSARI, UFC CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER: When I first started this, I thought, there's no way this is really happening. Dana had us on the phone with the president talking specifically about pulling this off, and it became very real very quickly.
SIDNER: You are the logistics guy. Give me some sense of what your day-to-day is like right now.
BORSARI: Several visits to the White House. This is a one of one. Never been done before. So we're kind of drafting the blueprint as we go here.
SIDNER: What's the most difficult thing logistically that you're trying to deal with?
BORSARI: The security constraints. There's up to a six-hour process just to get every single truck cleared before it can get to the White House. We're only a couple hundred feet from the West Wing. We're building this out. Don't forget, it's a resident. [20:55:01]
SIDNER (voice-over): The structure was erected first in a parking lot in Pennsylvania. Then inspected, dismantled, loaded onto trucks and driven to Washington.
BORSARI: You can see right through to the White House. There's no reason, if we're going to be on the South Lawn of the White House, to do anything but lean into this incredible backdrop.
SIDNER (voice-over): One week from tonight, fighters will walk out from the White House to the octagon on the South Lawn.
RIGUEUR: There is no precedent for combat sports, mixed martial arts, any of that becoming intertwined with the White House, with the presidency. Having a UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House is part of this larger idea of rewriting the space in the image of Trump.
SIDNER (voice-over): Yet this is not the first time a White House event stirred controversy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We fought with him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me, I died for him.
RIGUEUR: Barack Obama hosted the cast of "Hamilton." He hosted the rapper Ludacris. And at the time, he got major pushback, centering a genre like rap diminishes the seriousness and is disrespectful to the sanctity of the White House. And here we are 10 years later, and the president of the United States will be hosting a cage fighting match, exhibition match to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States.
It's almost a surrealist turn, about-face, especially given how far we have changed just in the space of a decade.
TRUMP: These are the greatest fighters in the world. They're all champions. I was talking to Dana White last night. He was talking about that. Some people can take a punch and some people can't. And in life, it's always good to be able to do that.
SIDNER (voice-over): For the people actually stepping into the cage on June 14th, the history and the politics, they say, are beside the point.
Are you worried at all? You're going to be at the White House, and we are in a very divisive political time where there are people who revile, despise the president, and there are people who love the president.
GARCIA: There's no politics. I get to go out there and I get to punch somebody in the face, whether he's blue or red, right down the middle, angle to the left, to the right.
SIDNER (voice-over): Steve Garcia is the son of a Mexican American family. He is also the first fighter on the White House card. People are going to find a political edge to this. And one of the big
ones is immigration. It's the way that the president talks about people of different colors and races and creeds. As someone with the last name Garcia.
GARCIA: Yes.
SIDNER: How do you handle that? What do you think about it?
GARCIA: Yes, my last name is Garcia. That has nothing to do with. I'm an American, and I'm a proud American, to be honest. I get to go out there, and I get to perform for my country. The White House is just in the background.
TRUMP: Look at my guy right here.
JUSTIN GAETHJE, UFC FIGHTER: Donald Trump opened up his venues to let us have those events. He calls me after my fights. This is pretty cool that a culmination of events from him fighting hard for us in the early '90s has kind of led to this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Justin "the Highlight" Gaethje.
SIDNER (voice-over): Justin Gaethje is the headliner on the White House card. He'll be fighting for the lightweight title on June 14th.
GAETHJE: I feel like it's all a simulation. My first fight ever in 2008 was outside, and my possibly my last fight ever will be outside on the White House lawn. This is a dream come true. I couldn't write a better story.
SIDNER: You are going to be on the White House lawn. What does this moment mean for you?
M. CHANDLER: Being chosen as one of the American fighters on the card, it truly is humbling. It's going to draw this massive amount of crowd and this massive amount of intrigue across the entire globe, and it's just really cool to be a part.
SIDNER: What's the future for Dana White in UFC?
WHITE: After the White House event, we're going to go right on to the next event. We will travel all over the world this year.
SIDNER: Do you think your sport, people aren't really connecting it to politics?
WHITE: I do not think so. I roll into these cities. Our fans show up and no matter where we are, right, left, or whatever's going on, we have a blast. We break records when we put on great fights. That's what we do.
ZIDAN: This is not even an event celebrating America's birthday. This is a celebration of Donald Trump.
RIGUEUR: There is just something both stunning about the UFC doing a cage match at the White House, and then something utterly unsurprising about this.
WHITE: The White House will be one of one, and I don't know what comes after that. I mean, I don't know how you beat this. We'd have to do, like, a fight on the moon or something. I don't know how you beat it.
