Candid reflection on his friendship with the former president had UFC President Dana White ranking the man against “the greatest fighters of all-time.”
“If he wasn’t that type of guy, I would never even associate myself with him.”
(Video: Fox News)
In the age of cancel culture, there is no question that aligning oneself with a pariah of the establishment was a risky proposition — just ask debanked entrepreneur Mike Lindell. So, having stood for former President Donald Trump when he was only a candidate in 2016, and vowing to stand for him again, White’s lasting allegiance to the GOP leader carried considerable weight.
Saturday, he joined Fox News host Brian Kilmeade for an interview on “One Nation” where he was asked, “You know a fighter’s heart. You stare into more fighters’ eyes than anybody else to see what’s in there. Where does he rank at 77?”
“Number one,” came the sure response of the fight mogul. “Number one. Take any of the greatest fighters of all-time, Trump is number one. The most resilient human being that I’ve ever met in my life.”
“In what respect?” posed the host prompting something of a self-evident answer in the form of his own question, “Why keep doing this?”
“You know, you’ve got money, you’ve got a great life, you got whatever; why keep doing this?” continued White. “And the one thing that I can tell you — and this is a fact — this guy loves this country, right? And he loves all Americans, regardless of what color, religion or whatever it is. He’s not a racist. He’s a good human being, and he loves Americans, and he cares about this country. Period. End of story.”
“If he wasn’t that type of guy, I would never even associate myself with him,” he added having built a relationship with Trump dating back to the 90s when the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey became one of the first venues to host the UFC.
When asked if he would speak at the Republican National Convention for Trump this year as he had in 2016, the UFC president simply stated, “I’ll be there.”
The love for the onetime commander-in-chief in arenas across the country was readily apparent as he would walk out to cheers from the crowds, and recently that support only seemed to grow mere miles from the New York City courthouse where he was convicted.
Walking out to Kid Rock’s “American Bad A**” with White by his side, Trump was cheered by the thousands in attendance at The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, had fighters leave the cage to speak to him after their victories, and even had the promise of a financial contribution from middleweight Sean Strickland who said in his post-fight interview, “President Trump, you’re the man, bro. This is a damn travesty what they are doing to you. I’ll be donating to you, my man. Let’s get it done.”
‘The man in the arena’: Trump receives ‘staggering’ applause at UFC fight days after ‘guilty’ verdict https://t.co/s1JQr3QtVq via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) June 2, 2024
According to White, much of the support in the fight community, fans and competitors alike, was less “political” and more about “common sense.”
“If you let all the media BS go away, we all want to make a good living, we all want to get a house, we want some nice cars, we want kids, we want to take care of our kids, we want our kids to do well and go to college,” he explained to Kilmeade. “Everybody wants the same things. It’s not like we don’t. It’s just the media has created this divide in this country that needs to go away. And hopefully soon it will.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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