Trump’s unbreakable bond with the UFC
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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. Decades later, Mike Lindell, better known as the MyPillow guy, hitched his wagon to US President Donald Trump and... I ran out of money.
I have no money personally. Nothing left.
Nothing left. Lindell spent all of his money trying to prove the 2020 election was stolen and ended up with none of it. This year, on Donald Trump's 80th birthday, there was a big party on his back lawn.
Welcome to UFC Freedom 250. Here is the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump.
Now, on the surface, it seems a little odd that the president would give a private company exclusive rights to broadcast the proceedings of his 80th birthday on publicly owned land. It's also odd that the sport chosen is mixed martial arts. Less than 10% of Americans say they follow combat sport. It's less popular than basketball and tennis, and the White House lawn already has a basketball and tennis court. This wasn't really about the popularity of the sport. It was about the importance of this particular company, the UFC, to Donald Trump.
Trump and the UFC have been entangled for decades. The UFC's president says its current success and popularity is partially down to something Donald Trump did to help them 25 years ago. This event at the White House publicly and permanently tied the UFC to Donald Trump, like Jelly Belly and Ronald Reagan. The question is, will the UFC's boss Dana White end up cashing in like the boss of Jelly Belly, or will he be more like the MyPillow guy?
I have no money personally, nothing left, nothing left.
I'm Matt Bevan, and this is If You're Listening. If You're Listening
Hail to the Navy, that great bulwark of democracy.
This story starts with the US Navy and its boxing program.
A fighting tradition instilled in its corps of officers at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis.
In the 1950s, one of the young men being trained as a naval officer at Annapolis was John McCain III. Both John McCain I and John McCain II were admirals in the Navy, so John McCain III had quite a bit of expectation hanging over his head. At the academy, recruits would compete against each other in boxing to earn days of leave. During his time there, McCain became quite an accomplished lightweight boxer, and even when he left the Navy to pursue a career in politics, he never lost his love of the sport. First and foremost, I'm a fervent, lifelong fan of the sport. I have followed professional boxing closely for over four decades. When McCain entered the US Congress, he took special interest in policies related to boxing.
Professional boxing has commonly been called the sweet science and the red light district of sports. Both are accurate descriptions. In this capacity, he also looked into other combat sports. In 1993, that included the emerging sport of Mixed Martial Arts or MMA.
We're live from the Mile High City of Denver, Colorado at the McNichols Sports Arena, the site of tonight's landmark martial arts event.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
How did Donald Trump help the UFC during its early struggles?
0:00–7:20
2
What challenges did the UFC face in gaining legitimacy?
7:20–13:47
3
What role did Dana White play in the UFC's resurgence?
13:47–20:07
4
How did Trump's political career intersect with the UFC?
20:07–24:12
5
What impact did January 6 have on Trump's public image and UFC relationship?
24:12–24:54