UFC's Sports Diplomacy Deal

Dana White and Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a Memorandum of Understanding at State Department headquarters.

The agreement is expected to deliver additional financial and promotional benefits to the UFC. The timing — days before the UFC stages its first ever event on the White House grounds — is not coincidental.

"Obviously, we come from very humble beginnings when we first bought this company. We believed at that time that this thing would work everywhere and would work all over the world. It doesn't matter what color you are, what country you come from, and what language you speak — we're all human beings and fighting is in our DNA. We get it and we like it,” White

The UFC was purchased out of bankruptcy for $2 million in 2001. It is now a global entertainment property with events on every continent, pay-per-view records that rival the biggest nights in boxing history, and a formal diplomatic partnership with the United States government.

What the MOU means in practical terms has not been fully detailed publicly. The White House event on Sunday sits at the centre of all of this. UFC Freedom 250, staged on the South Lawn to mark 250 years of American independence, is simultaneously a sporting event, a presidential occasion, and now the public debut of a formal government partnership.

Dana White predicting Super Bowl numbers for Sunday takes on a different character when the organisation signing diplomatic agreements at the State Department earlier in the same week.