UFC

From Cage Fighting Curiosity to Mainstream Giant

The UFC launched in 1993 as a no holds barred spectacle and nearly died in the late 1990s, when 36 states banned the format and its owner neared bankruptcy [3]. In 2001, casino executives Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta bought the promotion for 2 million dollars through their new company, Zuffa, and installed their friend Dana White as president [3][4]. The Ultimate Fighter reality show, which White co-created and which premiered in 2005, turned the company around, and in 2016 the Fertittas sold the UFC for roughly 4 billion dollars to a group led by the talent agency WME-IMG, which was renamed Endeavor the following year [3][4]. Today the UFC runs dozens of events a year worldwide and remains the dominant promotion in mixed martial arts.

Who Owns the UFC Now

In September 2023, Endeavor merged the UFC with the wrestling company WWE to create TKO Group Holdings, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker TKO [3]. TKO is controlled by Endeavor Group Holdings, which is itself controlled by the private equity firm Silver Lake, and together they hold roughly 61 percent of TKO's voting power [5]. Its leadership triangle is Ari Emanuel as executive chair and chief executive of TKO, Mark Shapiro as president and chief operating officer, and Dana White as chief executive of the UFC itself [6][7]. TKO reported UFC segment revenue of 401.4 million dollars for the fourth quarter of 2025 and guided to total 2026 company revenue between 5.675 and 5.775 billion dollars [6]. In August 2025 the company signed a seven year, 7.7 billion dollar media rights deal moving UFC content from ESPN to Paramount beginning in 2026, ending the pay per view model in the United States and putting numbered events on Paramount+ with CBS simulcasts [4][8].

A Fight Card on the White House Lawn

The White House event, billed as UFC Freedom 250, is the clearest corporate signal in the company's history. President Trump first announced the idea at an Iowa rally on July 3, 2025, and White confirmed weeks later that the fight was on [1]. TKO covered the full cost, which company president Mark Shapiro put at more than 60 million dollars, telling an investor conference that TKO expected to lose about 30 million dollars on the event and arguing the exposure was worth it, while White called it a huge brand play [1][9]. The card aired on Paramount+ as a marquee moment in the new media deal, with a temporary arena structure known as The Claw erected on the South Lawn and a free public viewing area at The Ellipse [1][2]. A company choosing to spend tens of millions of dollars to produce a sitting president's birthday celebration on the White House grounds is a corporate decision, made at the top of TKO, and it is the kind of fact this profile exists to surface.

The CEO and the President

Dana White's personal alignment with President Trump long predates the White House card and is distinct from the corporate record, though the two increasingly overlap. The relationship traces to the UFC's survival era. In 2000 and 2001, when 36 states had banned the sport and, as White tells it, no venues wanted it, Trump's Taj Mahal in Atlantic City hosted UFC events, and White has credited Trump ever since with helping the company survive [10]. It is the story he returns to most, from CBS's 60 Minutes to the Republican National Convention, though former UFC staff have disputed the fuller version in which Trump personally championed the promotion [10][11]. White has repaid the association publicly for two decades, including speeches at multiple Republican National Conventions [7][10]. According to OpenSecrets, which compiles Federal Election Commission records, White has made nearly 2.5 million dollars in itemized individual political contributions since 2005, the large majority to Republicans and pro-Trump groups, including a 1 million dollar donation to a pro-Trump super PAC in 2019, against about 80,000 dollars to Democratic candidates and party committees [7]. White joined the board of Meta Platforms in 2025 [4]. He has described himself as nonpartisan, and after the 2024 election he said he was done with politics [7]. Under the RedRightBuyer standard, an executive's personal donations are weighed separately from company conduct, but readers should know both exist here and point the same direction.

The Voice of the Octagon

For more than two decades the UFC's biggest fights have been called by Joe Rogan, whom White hired as the promotion's color commentator in 2002 [12]. Rogan is broadcast talent rather than a UFC executive or owner, and away from the Octagon he hosts The Joe Rogan Experience, one of the largest podcasts in the world. In the final weeks of the 2024 presidential race he became a notable political figure in his own right. He released a roughly three hour interview with Donald Trump on October 25, 2024 that drew more than 40 million views, and on the eve of Election Day he endorsed Trump, crediting Elon Musk with making the most compelling case for the candidate [12][13]. Rogan's audience skews young and male, a demographic the Trump campaign actively targeted, and the campaign celebrated his backing [12]. As with the promotion's chief executive, this is the personal activity of an individual associated with the UFC, weighed separately from the company's own conduct, though it is a large part of why the UFC brand is so frequently discussed in political terms.

The Executive Whose Politics Run the Other Way

The UFC's chief executive leans right, but the executive above him does not. Ari Emanuel, the chief executive of parent company TKO, is a longtime Democratic donor who gave 926,300 dollars on August 30, 2024 to the Harris Victory Fund, the joint fundraising committee for Kamala Harris's campaign and Democratic Party committees [14]. His alignment is the mirror image of Dana White's, a reminder that the company's political signals do not all point in one direction. What makes Emanuel notable is that his personal relationship with Donald Trump predates and runs deeper than the UFC. Emanuel was Trump's agent during the Apprentice years, and in 2015, as much of corporate America backed away from Trump's presidential campaign, Emanuel's agency bought the Miss Universe Organization from him and Emanuel brokered the deal; Trump has called him a very good friend [15]. As with White and Rogan, this is the personal activity of an individual associated with the UFC, weighed separately from the company's own conduct, but it is a large part of why the UFC's political identity resists a simple label.

Lobbying and the Company PAC

The company lobbies in Washington under the name of Zuffa, the UFC's parent company. Federal lobbying disclosures filed for Zuffa and Affiliates by the firms Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and ACG Advocacy report about 450,000 dollars in lobbying fees in 2024, 680,000 dollars in 2025, and about 340,000 dollars in the first half of 2026 [16]. The filings cover piracy of copyrighted programming, ticketing legislation, visa issues and, from late 2025, the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act (H.R. 4624), a boxing reform bill that would let a unified organization promote boxing events; supporters say it would improve fighter safety and pay, while critics say it would give TKO and other major promoters too much control [7][16]. One 2025 filing lists TKO Group Holdings as an affiliated organization and another lists Boxing OpCo, LLC [16]. TKO also runs a corporate political action committee, the TKO Group Holdings PAC, which registered in 2009 and filed as the Zuffa Political Action Committee until the 2024 election cycle [17]. In the 2024 cycle it raised 49,500 dollars and gave 17,800 dollars to federal candidates and lawmakers' leadership PACs, about 80 percent of it to Democrats, led by the leadership PACs of Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and Delaware Senator Chris Coons [17]. In the 2026 cycle, through August 31, 2026, it raised 56,500 dollars and gave 41,500 dollars, about 54 percent to Democrats and 46 percent to Republicans, including 5,000 dollars to the Ted Cruz Victory Fund and 3,500 dollars to Senator Dan Sullivan, both members of the Senate Commerce Committee that is weighing the boxing bill [7][17].

Litigation and Reader Context

Several matters belong in a reader's file as context rather than as political signals. An anti corruption watchdog filed an emergency lawsuit in June 2026 seeking to block the White House event, arguing it handed White the grounds for a private, for profit sporting event, and President Trump disclosed buying between 15,001 and 50,000 dollars of TKO stock in March 2026; the administration dismissed the suit as obstructionist [1][7]. Separately, the long running antitrust fight over UFC fighter pay produced a 375 million dollar settlement in the Le v. Zuffa class action, approved in February 2025, while related cases known as Johnson and Cirkunovs continue [18]. In February 2026, White testified in the Johnson case at hearings that focused on the UFC's handling of evidence, including a phone of his that went missing [19]. On the business side, TKO and the Saudi entertainment company Sela launched Zuffa Boxing in 2025, a White led boxing league that held its first event in January 2026, deepening the company's commercial ties to Saudi Arabia [4].

What Fight Fans Should Watch

The 2026 season is the first of the Paramount era, with numbered UFC events available on Paramount+ and select cards simulcast on CBS instead of pay per view [8]. The company's bet is that the White House spectacle and free national broadcasts pull MMA fully into the mainstream. Whatever a consumer concludes about the politics, the UFC has made the research easy: the ownership is public, the media deal is public, the donations and lobbying are public record, and the biggest event in company history was staged on the most political real estate in America.

Corrections

Correction, October 4, 2026: An earlier version of this profile said neither the UFC nor its parent company TKO reports federal lobbying. Federal disclosures show lobbying on the company's behalf under the name Zuffa and Affiliates, and this version adds those filings and TKO's corporate PAC. The earlier version also said Ari Emanuel gave nearly one million dollars to Kamala Harris's PAC and campaign; FEC records show a 926,300 dollar contribution to the Harris Victory Fund. A 2026 quote attributed to Dana White describing his politics, which we could not confirm, was removed. With the lobbying and PAC record added, the profile's rating changed from Red to Leans Red.

Footnotes

[1] Wikipedia, "UFC Freedom 250," accessed October 4, 2026, documenting the July 3, 2025 announcement, White's August 29, 2025 confirmation, the June 14, 2026 date, the cost, the Paramount+ broadcast, The Claw, The Ellipse viewing area, the Public Integrity Project lawsuit, and the Trump stock disclosure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_Freedom_250

[2] Michael Rothstein, "Everything to know about the UFC White House centerpiece: The claw," ESPN, June 10, 2026. https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/48946908/ufc-freedom-250-white-house-claw

[3] Wikipedia, "Ultimate Fighting Championship," accessed October 4, 2026, documenting the 1993 launch, the state bans and near bankruptcy, the 2001 Zuffa purchase, the 2005 Ultimate Fighter premiere, the 2016 sale to WME-IMG and its 2017 renaming as Endeavor, and the September 12, 2023 TKO merger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Fighting_Championship

[4] Wikipedia, "Dana White," accessed October 4, 2026, documenting the Fertitta purchase, The Ultimate Fighter, the 2016 sale, the Paramount deal, the Meta board seat, and Zuffa Boxing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_White

[5] TKO Group Holdings, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, on control by Endeavor Group Holdings and Silver Lake and their roughly 61 percent of TKO's voting power. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001973266/000119312526208992/tko-20260331.htm

[6] TKO Group Holdings, "TKO Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results," Business Wire, February 25, 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260225866580/en/TKO-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2025-Results

[7] Joedy McCreary, "Political spending rules the octagon at White House UFC event," OpenSecrets, June 10, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2026/06/political-spending-rules-the-octagon-at-white-house-ufc-event/

[8] Brent Brookhouse, "Dana White, TKO tease that UFC events, including potential White House special, could air live on CBS in 2026," CBS Sports, August 11, 2025. https://www.cbssports.com/mma/news/dana-white-tko-tease-that-ufc-events-including-potential-white-house-special-could-air-live-on-cbs-in-2026/

[9] Sean Keeley, "TKO's Mark Shapiro: UFC 'will not profit from [White House] event no matter what'," Awful Announcing, March 3, 2026. https://awfulannouncing.com/ufc/tko-mark-shapiro-will-not-profit-white-house-event.html

[10] ESPN staff, "A timeline of how Donald Trump, Dana White forged friendship through the fights," ESPN, June 14, 2026. https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/48995260/donald-trump-dana-white-forged-friendship-combat-sports

[11] Annabella Rosciglione, "UFC Insider Calls BS on Trump's Glory Grab," The Daily Beast, June 14, 2026. https://www.thedailybeast.com/ufc-insider-calls-bs-dana-whites-sell-on-trumps-glory-grab/

[12] Wikipedia, "Joe Rogan," accessed October 4, 2026, documenting his hiring as UFC color commentator in 2002 and his November 4, 2024 endorsement of Trump. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Rogan

[13] Adeola Adeosun, "Joe Rogan Endorses Donald Trump Night Before Election," Newsweek, November 4, 2024. https://www.newsweek.com/joe-rogan-endorses-donald-trump-1980197

[14] Federal Election Commission, individual contribution record: Ariel Z. Emanuel (CEO, Endeavor) to the Harris Victory Fund, 926,300 dollars, August 30, 2024. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&contributor_name=emanuel%2C+ari&two_year_transaction_period=2024&min_amount=10000

[15] John S. Nash, "Inside the UFC-Trump alliance: How Freedom 250 became the ultimate symbol of TKO's growing political power," Yahoo Sports (Uncrowned), June 11, 2026. https://sports.yahoo.com/mma/article/inside-the-ufc-trump-alliance-how-freedom-250-became-the-ultimate-symbol-of-tkos-growing-political-power-143000939.html

[16] U.S. Senate and House Lobbying Disclosure Act filings for client Zuffa and Affiliates (registrants Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP and ACG Advocacy), 2024 through second quarter 2026; duplicate same-quarter filings counted once. https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Zuffa

[17] Federal Election Commission, committee C00459693, TKO Group Holdings, Inc. PAC (formerly Zuffa Political Action Committee): registration history, 2024 and 2026 cycle totals, and itemized disbursements through August 31, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00459693/

[18] Cohen Milstein, "UFC MMA Fighters Antitrust Litigation," case page on Le v. Zuffa (375 million dollar settlement, final approval February 6, 2025), Johnson v. Zuffa, and Cirkunovs v. Zuffa. https://www.cohenmilstein.com/case-study/mixed-martial-arts-antitrust-litigation/

[19] Cageside Press staff, "White, Campbell Antitrust Testimony Sheds Light Into UFC Matchmaking, More," Cageside Press, February 6, 2026. https://cagesidepress.com/2026/02/06/white-campbell-antitrust-testimony-sheds-light-into-ufc-matchmaking-more