Ari Emanuel, Trump's key ally hiding behind Dana White
Dana's bromance with The Donald is BS and always has been. Who benefits?
“The biggest event we’ve ever had at the White House,” according to the POTUS, happens this Sunday, June 14.
I’m referring to UFC Freedom 250, of course.
The most media buzz in UFC history
This is an unusual card, not just because it’s the second ever UFC held outdoors, one of only a handful held on a Sunday, and only the third to feature 7 or fewer fights, but more importantly, because Dana White and Mark Shapiro claim the UFC’s parent company, TKO, stands to lose $30 million putting it on:
“Losing money is never fun. I did that for quite a few years in the early days, but you have to jump on an opportunity like this, no matter what it costs you,” says White.
Mark Shapiro, the president and COO of TKO, told Wall Street analysts in February that the event will cost the company “upwards of $60 million,” and that it “could move north.” TKO expects to lose about $30 million on UFC Freedom 250, even after securing high-profile sponsorship deals from the likes of Ram Trucks, Crypto.com and Monster Energy.
“I want to be clear about something: We will not profit from the White House event independently. We will not be making money on America’s 250th anniversary,” Shapiro said. “This is an investment for the long term. This is about earned media.
“This is about sampling, new fans, casual viewers, a spectacle on a stage that will ultimately expand our audience, our viewership and our success on Paramount+,” he added. “We see this once-in-a-lifetime stage as a strategic investment to drive subscriber acquisition at Paramount+, massive audience sampling for the UFC overall, and Super Bowl-like earned media across the globe.”
In a recent TNT interview, Dana White claimed that UFC White House will draw as many viewers as the NFL.
“For UFC fans all over the world, this is a very unique experience for everybody. We’re expecting Super Bowl type numbers for this fight.”
I am sure that sales pitch is music to the ears of David Ellison and Paramount, key Ari Emanuel clients.
Based on a search of Google Trends, so far, it’s clear that UFC Freedom 250 has drawn far more media interest for the promotion than literally anything going back to 2004. Sadly, Google Trends doesn’t go back to the 1990s, so there’s no way to tell whether the current hype is bigger than the media firestorm generated by the “human cockfighting” backlash of the original UFC.
Interestingly, while organic Google searches for the event are high, they reflect the promotion’s consistent growth rather than a dramatic jump.
But very little of that media coverage focuses on the actual fight card, or even mentions any of the fighters.
Instead, what we’ve got is the usual Trump 2.0 controversy with Democrats and the media establishment virtue signalling that they are appalled by the ugly vision on the White House lawn, and even falling for Trump’s trolling that “maybe we’ll never take (The UFC Octagon) down.”
And as Luke Thomas points out, the normies are appalled.
And based on the polling, a good deal of that coverage is negative:
According to the White House (via Vanity Fair), “there’s been a monthslong frenzy over access to the June 14 event, with even the capital’s most powerful denizens frantically jockeying for a spot. The White House… has fielded an onslaught of requests from top-dollar donors, lobbyists, and members of Congress clamoring for seats.”
The only surprise is that Texas Senator Ted Cruz hasn’t introduced his version of the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, and that it wasn’t ready for Trump to sign at a UFC White House ceremony. Missed opportunity.
Dana White is front and center, Ari Emanuel is omerta
The face of this circus is UFC CEO Dana White.
The ringleader is TKO chairman Ari Emanuel.
But don’t expect many left-leaning reporters or Democratic pundits to mention his name on cable news or podcasts as they ragebait off of the event.
Talking about Ari Emanuel can be very bad for your career after all.
Dana White, on the other hand, he’s a punching bag for the press and pundits (fittingly, his all-time peak media coverage came in January 2023 when he got caught beating up his wife on video).
The only media afraid of Dana are those last desperate folks still clinging to a “career” in MMA media.
Never fear though, there are plenty of right-leaning political grifters who are using UFC Freedom 250 to draw attention to themselves.
One of them is UFC Middleweight champ Sean Strickland.
Sean Strickland: "I got the call, UFC higher ups called me. They said I'm not Israeli enough to go to UFC 250 Israel edition.
I already bought my plane ticket, we're f*cking going. I'm gonna bring the belt, I'll get a big f*cking bull horn and go right up to the gates... We're gonna do a peaceful protest."
Strickland has managed to combine his on-again, off-again shtick about Israel with a Rampage Jackson-style 24/7 Kick-type social media obsession to keep one-upping himself with a monologue linking Trump, Epstein, and Netanyahu.
Bryce Mitchell has gotten in on the action as well, from the safety of the UFC META APEX in Las Vegas.
The online trolling and grifting have been over the top enough to have gotten many to bite hook, line, and sinker on some pretty wild rumors like Bibi Netanyahu attending the card, or Erika Kirk working as the emcee.
We’ve been aggressively covering Ari Emanuel’s leading role in the UFC and WWE since 2023, and it never ceases to amaze how few people are aware that he owns the UFC and drives the political maneuvering behind the organization.
Ari Emanuel’s preference to keep himself out of the UFC narrative is a key driver of the Zuffa Myth 2.0 - that without Donald Trump, the UFC would have never risen from the ashes when Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta bought the company in 2001.
Without Trump and Atlantic City, there would be no UFC, and therefore Dana White and Donald Trump have had a lifelong bromance and business relationship, which is why UFC is running an event on President Trump’s 80th birthday at the White House.
That’s the slop that Ari wants Democrats to believe, and it’s why Dana White has been selling it so hard on his Endeavor-curated media tour with NPR, Time, Rolling Stone, and a bunch of lesser controlled assets podcasts.
Tim Wheaton posted an excellent screed on the kayfabe Dana and Ari are running on the American public that Donald Trump has been a key ally of the UFC for 25 years:
the narrative is completely false. Donald Trump hosted three UFC events between 2000 and 2001 at his Taj Mahal Casino, the Mark G. Etess Arena. Even during the fledgling era of the UFC, they still hosted 23 events between 2000-2004 with most of these being in the USA. Thus, the UFC was not struggling to find venues to book events even during its worst years.
White is also crediting Trump with helping the UFC with success. Trump hosted the UFC in 2001 yet White goes on to explain that the UFC was on death’s door before The Ultimate Fighter premiere in 2005. Plus, the UFC only sold roughly 3,000 tickets to the Trump-hosted event. While the next event, UFC 32 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, not a Trump venue, sold four times that amount with 12,500 tickets. Simply, the UFC did not see any boost from working with Donald Trump. One can see evidence of this, given that they never worked together again after that.
Similarly, Trump did not want the UFC back as he was booking better guests at the casino. Right after the UFC, the Mark G. Etess Arena hosted Luciano Pavarotti, ZZ Top, and P!NK, among others. Simply, Trump did not want them back when he was booking mainstream names.
Wheaton also outlines why Trump suddenly needed the UFC in 2016:
But in 2016, Trump hit the road as a presidential candidate and needed a boost for his masculinity. After all, he was a draft dodger who hung out with The View and Oprah, a coastal elite more associated with daytime television than locker rooms. He was more popular as a feature on the Emmy award show than he was with men.
The UFC opened its doors to help him look tough and they made up a false narrative along the way. He began making appearances cage-side at UFC events, especially in vital swing states such as Florida, with broadcasted walkouts like he was a fighter himself, surrounded by American flags.
During Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign had UFC leader White suggested that Trump change his media approach and instead start interviewing the manosphere. Sitting with live streamers and podcasters, the next era of media. White thanked the new media as he spoke on podium on election night, “I wanna thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, ‘Bussin with the Boys,’ and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan!”
And what does TKO get for backing Trump? Simple: access. The kind of access that lets Ari Emanuel help David Ellison acquire first Paramount and then WBD, which led directly to the UFC’s $7.7 billion Paramount deal.
So how does Ari Emanuel stay out of the UFC White House headlines?
A perfect story encapsulates this maddening dilemma. Recently on Pod Save America, former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau talked about receiving an invitation to go to the UFC White House event. The problem is that Ari and Mark apparently invited the wrong Jon Favreau. The other guy, the one who directed Swingers 25 years ago.
Obama’s Favreau did not accept the invitation. Apparently, neither did many other celebrities like The Rock, Mario Lopez, Jared Leto, or Adam Sandler. Just like the exodus of musicians who said no to Freedom 250.
How can people not understand that Ari Emanuel has been running the show? Easy.
First, there is a code of silence about Ari’s involvement. Don’t say his name. He’s the King of Hollywood. Endeavor represents everyone on every side of the table. Job security.
Second, money. Ari Emanuel neutered Jeffrey Katzenberg at the Simon Wiesenthal Dinner in 2024 before taking out Joe Biden (as he bragged to Tina Brown).
In the 2028 US Presidential race, it will be Ari Emanuel’s donations and ability to bundle key financiers that will make or break certain Democratic contenders. (See: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, his brother Rahm Emanuel, and Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff.)
Which brings us to point three. A key regional Democratic staffer reminded Zach of a brutal point. Democrats don’t watch the UFC. They don’t want to be associated with cage fighting.
See the recent CNN commentary about the lawn of the White House being turned into the Roman Colosseum with a claw. Therefore, Democrats don’t know anything about the UFC or its audience. They pay no attention to management or who is making the decisions.
It’s why they ignored Ali Abdelaziz and Ric Grenell going to Dearborn, Michigan, for the 2024 US Presidential race to help Donald Trump eke out a win over Kamala Harris.
Therefore, when Democrats find out that it’s Ari Emanuel who is running this circus and is running the UFC White House event, there is serious cognitive dissonance.
How can One of Us be Trump’s enabler? It’s why there was no political blowback to Ari Emanuel cashing in a favor, reportedly by calling President Trump to ask for help in the LiveNation/Ticketmaster case.
Ari Emanuel became a billionaire thanks to UFC & WWE, not because of his Hollywood agencies.
He’s a key man of influence in this Trump 2.0 White House. Emanuel is on pace to make hundreds of millions of dollars in extra personal wealth. He’s also going to be a key player in both the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games and the 2028 US Presidential contest on the Democratic side.
And yet Democrats are whistling past this graveyard in a Great Pretending because they want his Hollywood cash and access to all of his controlled media assets.
Why should Ari Emanuel leap into the spotlight when he can quietly control both the Democratic and Republican parties from the sidelines?
It’s great to be rich. It’s even better when the UFC can piss off over 60% of the country by closely associating with a deeply unpopular Trump, and its owner stays completely out of the headlines.
Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.
Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.