On Saturday night, 2024 Presidential-Elect Donald Trump took in the festivities of UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, walking out to the arena just ahead of the start of the main card. Upon doing so, he received a warm welcome from the UFC broadcast team.
Trump of course has longstanding ties with UFC President Dana White that date back to Trump allowing White and the UFC to host events at the Trump Taj Mahal in 2001 when very few states even allowed MMA events to be sanctioned.
The relationship between Trump and White has only grown stronger since then. Not only has Trump appeared publically at countless UFC events in recent years. But White spoke on Trump’s behalf ahead of all three of his presidential campaigns at the Republican National Convention.
White is also not the only important figure in the MMA community to publically back Trump ahead of the 2024 election. UFC broadcaster Joe Rogan also publically endorsed Trump just days before the election and had both him and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance on The Joe Rogan Experience.
Shortly after the end of the bantamweight fight between Marcus McGhee and Jonathan Martinez, Trump walked out alongside Dana White to take his seat and watch the main card. But first, he greeted the UFC commentary team, where Jon Anik, Joe Rogan, and Daniel Cormier all congratulated Trump on his successful campaign.
“So Donald Trump, making his way to watch the UFC which he absolutely loves,” Anik said as Trump walked towards the broadcast table. “And doing so in some sort of victory lap after regaining the presidency earlier this month in emphatic fashion with an election blowout of the democratic candidate Kamala Harris.”
Recently, UFC co-creator Campbell McLaren went as far as to say that the “UFC won the election” for Trump. And while that may be a bit of a stretch, key figures like White and Rogan did go a long way in stirring up support for Trump amongst sports fans.
Regardless of how much weight you feel Rogan and White’s public endorsement went into Trump’s Election Day victory, UFC 309 essentially served as a celebration for Trump.
And the UFC broadcast team certainly didn’t show any hesitancy in doing just that.
[Awful Announcing on X, Photo Credit: ESPN News]
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.