Before becoming the premier player in the MMA world, the UFC was the most boycotted sports organization in America. The company faced bans across 36 states, and cable networks were unwilling to air events. That was until the Fertitta brothers and Dana White stepped in to save the company from bankruptcy in 2001. They bought the UFC for $2 million from Semaphore Entertainment Group, the next order of business was finding a venue. Believing in the potential of MMA, Donald Trump hosted two UFC events at his now-defunct ‘Trump Taj Mahal’ hotel. Thus began the long-standing friendship between Dana White and the former US president.

On JRE episode #2219, the former POTUS recalled how the UFC were struggling when he met White and the Fertitta brothers – “They couldn’t get a site, because it was too dangerous. Everybody was against it, and they couldn’t get licenses. And I gave him, the first two or three sites and they were great.” UFC 30 and UFC 31 were held at the Trump Taj Mahal, and the former president recalled how exhilarating his first UFC event was – “And, by the way, I went to the first fight. I said, I never saw anything like this. It was crazy. It was so good. Take the best fight you’ve ever seen – it was like that fight right? It was so good, that I gave it to him again. And all of a sudden, it caught on.”

In some senses, we wouldn’t have the UFC, or even MMA as we know it, if not for Donald Trump. It’s no secret that the UFC president is grateful to the businessman-turned-politician for the supportive act. White regularly boasts of his close friendship with Trump and said the following during a UFC 287 press meet, “I say it all the time. I mean, when we did that first deal with the ‘Trump Taj Mahal’ – you know, you’ve got to remember, and it’s hard for lot of you to even think about this because of where the brand was at that time and what it meant.

Commenting on Trump’s vision for mixed martial arts, Dana White continued, “But he saw it, he got it [and] cut us that deal at the Taj when we went there. [He] got there for the first fight of the night, and stayed there till the last fight. He did it both time that we were there. He loves this sport, he loves fights, and I’ve said many times, he’s been an incredible friend to me”.

On the JRE podcast, Donald Trump said that Dana White is someone who never spoke badly of him. Rogan furthered iterated White’s love for the former POTUS for helping the UFC and its president at a critical time. And White’s love and admiration for Trump was evident in his words to Lex Fridman.

Donald Trump is ‘the most resilient human being’ Dana White has ever met

Dana White is not one to shy away when talking about his close relationship with Donald Trump. The UFC president made the exception to endorse his good friend despite self-admittedly not being political. White acknowledged that the ex-POTUS always manages to compose himself while interacting with him, despite all the adversity he faces.

While being asked by podcaster Lex Fridman to recall a fond memory White had of Trump, the UFC president said this – “Once he won the election [in 2016], I’d be at work and I’d be down the hall in the matchmakers’ room, whatever. My secretary would tell me, ‘The president’s on the phone!’, [I’d] f*****g come running down the hallway and grab the phone. And he’d want to talk about the fight that was coming up or the fight that happened.”

Dana White also spoke on how exhilarating it was to get a call from the White House, before continuing, “Just to sum him up. This is the kind of guy that – you want to talk about a fighter? This is the most resilient human being that I’ve ever met. If you see the s–t that this guy is going through publicly, every day – and I’ll call him on the phone as a friend and be like, ‘Hey, you good? How’re you doing?’. [He’d be] unfazed.” The only time when Trump was truly affected, according to Dana White, was when the former president’s ex-wife Ivanna Trump passed.

What do you think of Donald Trump’s influence on the world of MMA and the UFC? Let us know in the comments below.