{"id":738912,"date":"2026-06-15T22:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738912\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T22:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:57:08","slug":"thrump-dana-white-the-ufc-muhammad-ali-a-tale-of-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738912\/","title":{"rendered":"$Thrump, Dana White, the UFC & Muhammad Ali- A Tale of Corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.levernews.com\/the-real-ufc-white-house-takeover<\/a><\/p>\n

At first glance, it may seem like one of these things is different than the others, but they are all connected.<\/p>\n

First, a bit of history:<\/p>\n

In addition to donating over $2 million to the Republican Party and $Thrump, Dana White has carried more water for him than any other figure in professional sports. He also gave $Thrump something of real value, rehabilitation. After the debacle on January 6, 2021, White gave $Thrump access to a hard to reach demographic, blood sport fans. But, White is angling<\/a> for a far more lucrative prize- the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act<\/a>, currently making its way through Congress, granting a way out from under from the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act<\/a>, passed in 2000. <\/p>\n

The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was passed to combat anticompetitive and exploitative practices in the boxing industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call it {the Boxing Revival Act} the Ali Destruction Act. It takes away all of the economic protections the original Ali Act gives boxers,\u201d says Erik Magraken, managing partner of the law firm MacIsaac & Company and cofounder of the Athlete\u2019s Voice Committee within the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports. \u201cIf there was any profession where the athletes deserve most of the cut, it\u2019s prizefighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Boxing Revival Act of 2026 would create a carveout from the Boxing Reform Act of 2000 by allowing what are known as Unified Boxing Organizations (UBOs) to skirt the requirements of the Boxing Reform Act. And Dana White is already poised to take full advantage of the change.<\/p>\n

Zuffa Boxing, formed last year<\/a> by UFC\u2019s owner, TKO Group Holdings, in a partnership with a Saudi Arabian company and helmed by White.<\/p>\n

If the new bill passes, Zuffa would be able to skirt rules that ban boxing companies from entering into anticompetitive contracts, influencing rankings, and failing to fully disclose fight revenue to fighters \u2014 depriving boxers of leverage to demand a larger share of their match revenues. <\/p>\n

In other words, Zuffa Boxing would be allowed to operate similarly to how the UFC currently controls mixed martial arts (MMA), a dominance that has led to multiple class-action lawsuits.<\/p>\n

While $Thrump has yet to offer his trademarked \u201cCOMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT\u201d to the Boxing Revival ACT, his hosting of an MMA event at the White House certainly offers a tacit endorsement and the Republican Congress is sure to hear that message very clearly. Also, $Thrump, recently upped his \u201cinvestment\u201d<\/a> in TKO Holdings.<\/p>\n

The Backstory<\/p>\n

Dana White got his start in the boxing world by running a gym in Boston. He got chased out of town when he was reportedly extorted<\/a> by infamous Boston mobster, Whitey Bulgar. White landed in Las Vegas in 1995 and found the new sport of MMA, along with casino operators Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, and they formed Zuffa LLC (Zuffa is the Italian word for \u201cfight\u201d) and purchased the UFC for $2 million.<\/p>\n

The UFC struggled for several years, but hit pay dirt with the reality TV series The Ultimate Fighter in 2005. The show was about fighters competing for a UFC contract and helped the fledgling company reach<\/a> a much wider audience.<\/p>\n

Soon after going mainstream, the UFC opened the monopoly playbook and turned its attention to rolling up the competition.<\/p>\n

In 2006, the UFC\u00a0purchased<\/a>\u00a0fighter contracts, trademarks, and other intellectual property from the World Fighting Alliance, which ceased all operations after the agreement. That same year, it\u00a0acquired<\/a>\u00a0World Extreme Cagefighting. UFC went on to buy out or acquire\u00a0Pride Fighting Championships<\/a>, the\u00a0International Fight League<\/a>, and\u00a0Strikeforce<\/a>. Eventually, the UFC was the only major MMA promoter left standing.<\/p>\n

$Thrump\u2019s involvement with MMA started in 2001, when he hosted some UFC events at his Atlantic City casino<\/a> and, later became an investor in Affliction Entertainment, an MMA competitor. $Thrump made note<\/a> of the of the value of market concentration at a 2008 press conference: \u201cIf there\u2019s only one organization, you can pay the fighters five dollars, and they\u2019ll be happy to fight\u201c. The very next year Affliction Entertainment sold itself <\/a>to UFC. When $Thrump ran for office in 2016, White endorsed him at the RNC convention saying, \u201cDonald was the first guy to recognize the potential we saw in the UFC and encouraged us to build our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five years later, White returned the favor.<\/p>\n

After the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the outgoing president suffered a far-reaching fall from grace, with his poll numbers cratering to\u00a029 percent<\/a>. Twitter\u00a0blocked<\/a>\u00a0him, and the PGA tour\u00a0stripped<\/a>\u00a0a major golf championship from his New Jersey golf course. But Trump still found a warm reception from White and the UFC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Jan. 6, Trump hit rock bottom in the polls,\u201d said MMA analyst Luke Thomas. \u201cThen, six months later, he goes to a UFC event, and the audience is hot for him. He has his own walkout music. The commentators are talking about him. They show him on camera. He\u2019s up front, the fighters genuflect to him. It was a laundering service that would happen for him over and over again, and this is all happening while he is not president.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the 2024 election, $Thrump would go on to be featured at six additional UFC events with his own walkout music and White would often personally escort him into the arena.<\/p>\n

In closing, while, statistically, young men are not political junkies<\/a>, they are MMA fans.<\/p>\n

Men make up 62 percent of the UFC\u2019s viewership, which also skews younger, with a median age of 37 years old as of the end of 2025, according to TKO Group\u2019s latest annual\u00a010-K report<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ringside rallies MAY<\/a> have made a difference. In the 2020 election, Biden enjoyed a 10 point lead with men under 50. By the time of the 2024 election, that lead had turned into a narrow deficit for Harris.<\/p>\n

The full article is well worth the read.<\/p>\n

\tWe’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.<\/p>\n

We continue to be paywall-free. We continue to be supported by our readers, not billionaires or corporations. But we need to bring in more revenue. We are leaning on our community more than ever to help make ends meet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.levernews.com\/the-real-ufc-white-house-takeover At first glance, it may seem like one of these things is different than the others, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,958,210483,785,9339,85,787],"class_list":["post-738912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-dana-white","tag-donaldtrump","tag-mma","tag-republicans","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}