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Chapter 1: How did Donald Trump help the UFC during its early struggles?
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Tammy Shipley believed someone was out to hurt her. I thought someone was after me and I wanted to just be safe. She's put under 24-hour surveillance.
I tried to get in contact multiple times.
And then something strange happens. She just drank and drank and had something like 20 litres of pure water.
Ambulance emergency. I've got a woman unconscious.
Tammy's Story. Search Background Briefing on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
This podcast was produced on the lands of the Awabakal and Gadigal people. Back in the 1980s, US President Ronald Reagan started giving kids big jars of jelly beans when they visited the White House.
In here is a jar with that seal engraved on it. And it's filled with jelly beans.
Reagan had been a smoker back in the 60s, but he'd managed to kick the habit by switching an addiction to cigarettes with an addiction to jelly belly jelly beans. And so in the 1980s, when he became US president, his obsession with those jelly beans boosted that company's sales massively. But closely associating your brand with a politician can be a bit of a mixed blessing.
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Chapter 2: What challenges did the UFC face in gaining legitimacy?
But how can a US Senator get a sport banned? Well, sports organizations need two things, venues to hold their events in and lucrative broadcast agreements. And John McCain was determined to cut the UFC's access to both of those things. From the 1980s onwards, combat sports tended to make their money through pay-per-view agreements with cable TV networks.
The latest in pay-per-view sports entertainment excitement. pay money to the cable company and you'd get access to the event.
If McCain could cut off the UFC's access to venues and pay-per-view money, he could kill the sport. So he began sending letters to every state governor in the country and asked them to ban it. He encouraged major cable operators to ban the UFC from their networks as well. By 1997, the UFC was struggling.
36 states refused to allow the UFC to fight there, including the traditional homes of big combat sports events like Nevada, California, and New York. Their 12th event, UFC 12, was due to be held in Niagara Falls, New York, but was banned at the last minute.
Amidst a torrent of controversy that runs deeper than Niagara Falls, it's the ultimate fighting championship.
They were forced to move it to the small city of Dothan in rural Alabama.
It was recently voted the number one place to live in Alabama and at one time was considered the peanut capital of the world.
But despite these huge setbacks, the UFC was still trying to expand. They hired a young comedian and actor to be their ringside interviewer.
Right now, let's go to Joe Rogan.
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Chapter 3: What role did Dana White play in the UFC's resurgence?
He's been, you know, a guy who did something at a time, saw something in this thing when nobody else did and did something for us that nobody else would.
He did something for us that nobody else would. Let's fast forward 20 years, because by that point, the tables had turned. The UFC was a multibillion dollar brand and Donald Trump was not in vogue.
In their thousands, they came, marching on the seat and the heart of American democracy, breaching its defences for the first time in more than 200 years.
Following the attack on the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, and his departure from the White House two weeks later, Donald Trump kind of disappeared from public view for a little while.
The former president had been mostly silent since his sullen departure from Washington on Inauguration Day, in disgrace for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection.
In terms of public support, he was at an all-time low. Less than 40% of Americans had a favourable opinion of him.
The question after his second impeachment was whether he could ever run again.
He spent months in the wilderness, out of office and locked out of his favourite social media networks, Twitter and Facebook.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social media giant's decision to cancel Donald Trump's account was based on his use of the platform to incite violent insurrection.
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Chapter 4: How did Trump's political career intersect with the UFC?
That's so nice.
By this stage, Rogan's podcast was the most popular podcast in the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
He invited Trump on for an interview just days before the election. All right, we're rolling. Good to see you, sir. Here we go. During the three-hour chat, they discussed the early days of the UFC.
It was banned from cable because of Budweiser and John McCain, and you could only get it on direct TV.
And then I came along and I gave him the sites.
You did. And he loves you for that. And he never forgot it. He loves you for that.
Trump said Dana White paid him back by supporting him during his darkest days in 2021.
When I wasn't exactly in vogue. Dana, they called him. He said, he's the greatest guy. There's nobody like him. He said, I'll never say anything bad about that guy.
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Chapter 5: What impact did January 6 have on Trump's public image and UFC relationship?
In next Thursday's episode, the US and Iran are on the verge of signing some kind of deal to end the war they've been fighting since the end of February. One of the conditions of the deal is an end to hostilities in Lebanon. The thing is, the US and Iran aren't directly involved in those hostilities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn't a signatory to the deal, and yet he's shown that he's willing to continue fighting in Lebanon, even if Donald Trump tells him not to. So what is going on in Lebanon? What is Bibi Netanyahu hoping to achieve there? And how will he react to this apparent deal? That's next week. I'll catch you then.