WASHINGTON, United States \u2014\u00a0The US State Department is readying to promote President Donald Trump’s favored combat sport — MMA — under an agreement signed Thursday with UFC, the organization that dominates the mixed martial arts world.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t matter what color you are, what country we come from, what language we speak, we’re all human beings, and fighting is in our DNA,” said Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) boss Dana White, a close associate of the Republican president, while signing the agreement alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n
The signing ceremony took place just days before a major fight scheduled at the White House this weekend coinciding with Trump’s 80th birthday.<\/p>\n
UFC bouts are “broadcast worldwide and contribute to the United States’ broader cultural and sports influence through professional competition and athlete development,” according to the State Department.<\/p>\n
Some 4,500 guests are expected to watch the fights on the White House’s South Lawn on Sunday, while up to 100,000 others will be able to view them on giant screens in a nearby park.<\/p>\n
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By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n The construction of the massive temporary arena at the White House — at a time when Americans are concerned about the cost of living just months before November mid-term elections — has come in for criticism from opposition Democrats.<\/p>\n But according to Rubio, the event is “a gift to the American people.”<\/p>\n “We have very few things left in our society, and I would say in the world, that convenes us all. We are so divided by so many different things,” Rubio said.<\/p>\n It “brings so many people, from so many different places, so many different backgrounds, and so many different points of view together, for a few hours, to enjoy one thing in common — and the bonding power of that is incredible,” he said.<\/p>\n As part of the partnership with the UFC, athletes and coaches will serve as US sports ambassadors and lead training clinics for young international athletes.<\/p>\n The State Department has signed a similar partnership with the NFL, the American football league of which Rubio is a fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, United States \u2014\u00a0The US State Department is readying to promote President Donald Trump’s favored combat sport —…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[145930,3050,263396,263393,49,48,263391,10359,641,115025,21449,263394,1296,638,514,263395,862,199508,242330,82,263397,263392,640,263390,1971],"class_list":["post-731602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-80th-birthday","tag-american-football","tag-american-people","tag-athlete-development","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cultural-influence","tag-dana-white","tag-fighting","tag-international-athletes","tag-marco-rubio","tag-mid-term-elections","tag-mixed-martial-arts","tag-mma","tag-nfl","tag-opposition-democrats","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-professional-competition","tag-south-lawn","tag-sports","tag-sports-ambassadors","tag-sports-influence","tag-ufc","tag-us-state-department","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}