Professor Elam

“That is going to happen,” the UFC maestro-slash-manosphere whisperer told me Monday. 

I’d gotten on the phone with White to talk about his gargantuan new deal with Paramount, which promises the UFC a spectacular $7.7 billion over seven years. 

True to form, the 56-year-old promoter was touting his next project, which would be surreal, unprecedented and maybe entirely predictable:

A major UFC card of mixed-martial arts—blood and sweat presumably included—at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

They’d do it right there on the South Lawn, home to Marine One landings and gentle Easter egg rolls. “We have a lot of land there,” President Trump said in July. The event would be part of the country’s 250th anniversary celebration in 2026.  

“Probably on CBS,” White said, which will surely thrill new Paramount CEO and CBS caretaker David Ellison, even if it makes the ghost of Edward R. Murrow reach again for his trusty pack of Camels. 

How can anyone be shocked? By now, the UFC’s assimilation into the culture—or perhaps, the culture’s assimilation into the UFC—is old news. 

Once a rogue in the corner, demonized by politicians, the UFC today is the preferred sport of a chief executive who flocks to fights with close associates, neo-emperors drawn to spandexed gladiators. The UFC is a global behemoth, a pillar of a publicly traded company, about to wrap a $550 million a year deal with Disney’s ESPN. 

Now it moves to Skydance acquisition Paramount, home to “60 Minutes” and Masters golf. 

Multiple media players wanted a piece of the UFC’s future, White said. Consideration was given to splitting the events among several carriers, as the NFL and NBA have done, until Paramount intervened, he said. 

“Last minute, these guys came in and said, ‘You know what? We don’t want to share. We want it all.’” White said. 

Under the new arrangement, a Paramount+ streaming service subscriber will have exclusive access to all UFC fights—including premium ones that historically required additional fees via “pay-per-view.” Selected fights will also be simulcast on CBS.

“What I do love about [the deal] is that the product is much more affordable for everybody,” White said. 

The move means UFC will bid adieu to its high-profile deal with ESPN. White and Disney may have started as odd partners, but White often raved about the impact when the sports giant’s brand and personalities got behind his events and fighters. 

I asked if he worried about losing that ESPN fire hose of attention.

“No,” he said. “It’s part of growing. We said goodbye to Spike. We said goodbye to Fox. And now, ESPN.” 

Did the Paramount+ subscription deal mark an end to pay-per-view in sports? White—who’s also promoting the upcoming Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight on Netflix—pooh-poohed the suggestion. 

“You get the right fight with the right guys at the right time, it could be a pay-per-view,” he said. 

Unlike most major sports, the UFC doesn’t have an athletes union; fighters are independent contractors. When I asked if the megadeal could motivate UFC fighters to organize in order to collectively bargain, White deflected.

“I can tell you this—since day one, fighter pay just continues to go up,” he said. “Every new deal we get, it’s definitely good for the fighters. 

What’s obvious is that the UFC sits at the grown-ups table in televised sports. The deal makes the UFC an essential partner of Paramount+ under the Ellison era, joining SpongeBob and all those horsey Taylor Sheridan dramas. David Ellison attended fights in the run-up to the acquisition, and Ellison’s father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is a longtime fan, White said.