Dana White confirmed during the post-event press conference following the historic UFC event on the White House lawn that he and President Donald Trump are already discussing another unique event for next year: a UFC card for U.S. troops.
The UFC CEO revealed the plan after being asked whether elements from the White House show, including servicemen escorting athletes to the octagon, could become part of future UFC events.
“The president and I are talking about doing an event for the troops next year,” White said.
He explained that such an event would naturally include military-themed elements similar to those seen at the White House card.
“So obviously if you did a event for the troops, we do all that kind of stuff,” he said. “We, you know, we did a lot of them in the past. We used to work with the Fisher family who were very dialed in with the military and could get things done easily.”
White acknowledged that holding events on military bases comes with significant logistical hurdles. However, he believes having support from the President could help overcome many of those challenges.
“It’s not easy to get things done on military bases and things like that,” White said. “But when we had the Fisher family and then obviously the president can make a lot of things happen.”
According to White, Trump initially wanted the military event to happen this year. However, the enormous cost of staging the White House card forced the UFC to postpone those plans.
“He wanted to do it this year,” White said. “And I said, ‘Sir, I need a year to recover financially from the White House event.’ So give me a year.”
The White House event itself was one of the most ambitious productions in UFC history. White revealed that the show exceeded its planned budget by roughly 40 percent, and despite the event’s success, he has no interest in attempting something similar again.
“I can’t afford it. There’s no way we can do this again,” White said. “I’ll never do the Sphere again and we’ll never do this again.”
Even so, White expressed immense pride in what the UFC accomplished. He credited the cooperation between UFC staff, the White House, and the Secret Service for helping deliver an event that reportedly attracted nearly 200,000 people to the Ellipse over two days.
