UFC CEO Dana White and President Donald Trump met in the Oval Office to strategize about possible weather delays moments before Trump gave the all-clear to “load the arena,” according to a new documentary about the production of the UFC’s Freedom 250 event at the White House.
The event proceeded with only minor delays despite looming storm clouds, which broke up directly over the White House. “God, Mother Nature, whatever you want to call it, those clouds splitting and going around us — listen, I don’t know how to describe it, but it was pretty damn awesome,” White says in the two-part documentary by Fox Nation.
UFC Fight House: The Making of the Biggest Fight in History, which premieres Thursday and is streaming on Fox Nation, begins by chronicling White’s long-term business relationship with Trump.
The UFC hosted its first fight at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after White became the organization’s president in 2001.
“A lot of people didn’t like the UFC because of the fact that they thought it was too dangerous,” Trump said. “People wouldn’t give the arena because they thought the risk was too great, but I did.”
The documentary goes on to describe not only the logistical feats involved in organizing the first professional sporting event in White House history, but also in accommodating Trump’s notoriously high standards.
A site inspection months before the event became an impromptu meeting with Trump when the president walked outside to question UFC employees about their plans to erect a temporary arena on White House grounds.
“I’ve never had so many people asking me for tickets,” Trump said, gesturing toward the South Lawn. “Do 7,000 seats here. You could do it. They’re going to build it.”
UFC executive producer and chief content officer Craig Borsari told Trump that the company expected to be able to fit 2,500 people without adding a level to the arena. Trump responded, “That’s terrible.”
The UFC managed to squeeze 4,300 spectators into the main venue, given security constraints and a mandate from the White House that it could not drill into the South Lawn.
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The Freedom 250 fight was both the most-viewed and most expensive UFC fight of all time. An average of 7 million viewers tuned in at a cost of $60 million to produce.
“If this was a script of a movie, you’d call bulls*** on 100 things that happened,” White said at the beginning of the documentary’s first episode. “It’s pretty amazing.”
