The president of Final Preventing Championship (UFC) will take the stage on Thursday night time earlier than Donald Trump – days after an assassination try – formally accepts the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump has embraced Dana White, one among his most outspoken supporters outdoors of politics, and the vastly well-liked fight sports activities franchise he manages, gracing a number of of its stay occasions over the previous 12 months whereas grappling with court docket battles.

With an unfiltered and unorthodox fashion much like Trump’s, the UFC boss will now act as frontman, introducing his long-time good friend because the finale of the Republican Nationwide Conference.

Their friendship dates again to not less than 2001.

Again then, Mr White – an Irish-American faculty dropout turned boxercise teacher – had gone from managing two blended martial arts (MMA) champions to turning into UFC president.

MMA had been going through a downturn. After then-US Senator John McCain labelled it “human cockfighting” and led a marketing campaign to ban the UFC, its occasions have been consigned to small markets.

“This model was so dangerous, venues did not even need us. Arenas did not need us,” Mr White mentioned in 2022.

However after New Jersey legalised the game in 2000, he continued, “Trump actually referred to as us. He mentioned ‘Come to my place, do the occasion right here. We’ll have you ever on the Trump Taj Mahal’.”

The now-defunct on line casino and lodge in Atlantic Metropolis went on to host the UFC 31 and UFC 32 MMA occasions, with Trump exhibiting up for the primary battle and staying till the final on each events, based on Mr White.

Each occasions boosted the corporate’s profile and helped it safe bigger venues for future occasions. Now the most important MMA promotion on the earth, the UFC is at present valued at $12.3bn (£9.5bn).

And Mr White has stayed loyal to Trump by his evolution from enterprise to politics.

Stumping for his good friend on the RNC in 2016, he praised him in a brief however fiery speech as “a tough employee” with “nice enterprise instincts”.

“I do know fighters,” he mentioned. “Donald Trump is a fighter, and I do know he’ll battle for this nation.”

Endorsing him once more on the 2020 RNC, he championed Trump’s report in workplace and mentioned it was “critically essential to re-elect” him.

Brash and uncensored in each language and method, the UFC chief has mentioned he “doesn’t give a [expletive]” about mixing enterprise and politics.

No stranger to controversy himself, he admitted final 12 months to slapping his spouse after a drunken altercation at a New 12 months’s Eve social gathering was caught on video. He has since apologised.

As Trump confronted prison, civil and different authorized challenges in his post-presidency, he has been Mr White’s visitor at a number of particular occasions.

Previously 12 months, Trump has attended not less than 4 such occasions, typically making fighter-style entrances with background music and an entourage.

His final scheduled look was scuttled this previous Saturday by the try on his life at a Pennsylvania rally.

The UFC is replete with fighters who communicate out in assist of historically conservative values, together with a number of self-described “pro-American patriots”.

Though it contains feminine fighters, the game represents a hyper-masculinity that’s arguably an excellent match for the picture generated by the Trump marketing campaign.

Every time Trump has been obtained with thunderous ovations from clearly partisan crowds and brought VIP seats near the octagon, or essential preventing ring.

However he doubtless can’t replicate this rising love affair in different sports activities arenas, together with these with Trump pleasant audiences like Nascar and the PGA Tour, and the beforehand Trump-friendly WWE.

The failed assassination try on Trump has in the meantime strengthened his good friend’s assist for his re-election.

“Everyone needs to behave just like the robust man. However when the [expletive] goes down, you discover out who the robust guys are and who the robust guys usually are not,” Mr White informed The Pat McAfee Present this week.

“This man is the professional, final, American badass of all time.”

Media experiences point out that Trump has rewritten Thursday’s nomination speech following Saturday’s capturing to make an express name for unity.

But when Mr White’s earlier conference speeches are any indication, his introduction to the principle occasion could not strike the identical conciliatory tone.

The conference can even hear from controversial pro-wrestling legend Hulk Hogan.

And, as one Trump surrogate put it, the previous president’s stroll onto the stage goes to be like “Hogan at Wrestlemania”.