UFC's bizarre connection to Trump's Board of Peace
The marriage between TKO, Abu Dhabi, and Washington DC runs very deep.
My jaw dropped when I saw the name Marty Edelman recently in the news.
For those of you who don’t know, Marty Edelman is the top US attorney for the United Arab Emirates. He’s also a long-time attorney for Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta, the former owners of the UFC.
Think: Flash Entertainment and UFC Fight Island.
Marty Edelman also happened to be the man who connected Ari Emanuel with the UAE’s top sports financier, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, and helped him land a Mediterranean-style villa in Brentwood (according to an extensive profile in The New Yorker):
(Ari) Emanuel called a New York real-estate lawyer named Martin Edelman, whom he had met through representing the UFC. Edelman was a longtime adviser to the league’s owners, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, veterans of the casino business. More important, he was close to the royal family of the Emirates and deeply involved in business there, serving as a senior adviser to Mubadala. “Marty Edelman figured out how to have a relationship with M.B.Z., and in the early two-thousands he started going to Abu Dhabi all the time,” Ravitch said.
Emanuel told me that Edelman was receptive, saying, “Whenever I call you to come to Abu Dhabi, come to Abu Dhabi.” Emanuel got the call on the day of Obama’s Inauguration. “From Washington, I get on a plane,” he told me. “I spend two days there. They were building the Formula 1 facility, they were building all this stuff, and I go around in the helicopter and I see the whole country—and I have a great time.”
It was on this trip that Emanuel met Al Mubarak, introduced by Edelman. He returned to Abu Dhabi often that year, meeting M.B.Z., his younger brother Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, and other members of the royal family. Emanuel said of M.B.Z., “He was always generous to me. Always. With his time.” His ties to Al Mubarak were even closer, he said: “It’s not only a business relationship. It’s a personal relationship. Family. We do things for each other. When Khaldoon was looking for a place in L.A., I helped him get it. When his son wasn’t doing well, I helped him get doctors. These are—they’re actually friends.”
It’s a Small World.
Or as George Carlin used to say, it’s a Big Club and you ain’t in it.
A recent report from Drop Site revealed Marty Edelman’s name as a member of US President Donald J. Trump’s Board of Peace.
The boxing world is confronting the outsized role of Turki Alalshikh and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The UFC world is married to the Saudi’s frenemy, the UAE.
The difference is that Turki is at major fights. He is a super fan. He also wants to be the sport’s commissioner.
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, as many Manchester City fans understand, is far slicker in his presentation to Western sports fans. He is a smooth operator.
The end result is still the same with both men. The impact of Turki and Khaldoon on combat sports cannot be understated.
Looking at the current cast of characters in charge of global governance under President Trump, will reveal the same movers-and-shakers and financial beneficiaries over and over again.
Endeavor and TKO are at the heart of Trump’s financial and diplomatic maneuvers.
Egon Durban, the Godfather of ruthless Private Equity player Silver Lake. (Read the recent Altshares Federal lawsuit pleading against Endeavor to see how high finance allegedly works in America.)
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the UAE’s top sports and investment financier internationally through Mubadala.
Ari Emanuel, The King of Hollywood, who just also happens to have deep influence over both the Republican and Democratic parties.
Marty Edelman, the New York real estate attorney and fixer who is the UAE’s legal counsel for their AI surveillance company G42. (Listen to Karim Zidan’s podcast for more background.)
Now throw in Larry Ellison (Oracle), his son David (Paramount), and Larry’s top political emissary, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, into this mix.
I guess there is a New World Order that Trump supporters will buy into!
All cynicism aside, it is critical that fight fans start learning their ABCs when it comes to global politics. Everything in your life now is controlled or influenced by Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Sovereign Wealth Funds.
The power players listed in this article all have their hands in the combat sports cookie jar.
Wait until you see what they are up to next.
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