Donald Trump’s White House UFC Event Would Be Embarrassing Anywhere
Key takeaways
- The event’s promoters are certainly setting expectations high. “We’re putting on the most historic sporting event in history,” UFC hypeman and CEO Dana White told Time.
- On Thursday, multihyphenate Marco Rubio compared the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship to the moon landing while making a difficult-to-follow point about the uniquely American nature of the company.
- The UFC, founded largely to showcase a Brazilian family’s jiu-jitsu skills, was not the first MMA promotion.
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Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg/Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story With his history of involvement in pro wrestling and boxing and his zeal for garish excess—the man is a failed casino impresario, after all—it makes perfect sense that Donald Trump would want to celebrate both America’s birthday and his own with UFC cage fights on the White House lawn, sponsored by Monster Energy. If there’s been any surprise, it’s been in how the whole affair has so far failed to clear the lowest bar.
The event’s promoters are certainly setting expectations high. “We’re putting on the most historic sporting event in history,” UFC hypeman and CEO Dana White told Time. One problem here is that this fight card would, in absence of the White House backdrop, not be the most historic scheduled for the next month, or an especially big or impressive one by the standards of any month. “Dignity” is not a word usually associated with fight promotion; even so.
On Thursday, multihyphenate Marco Rubio compared the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship to the moon landing while making a difficult-to-follow point about the uniquely American nature of the company. Absurd as this might be generally, it’s somehow more so specifically.