RNC speakers: What to know about Dana White
It will be the second convention he has spoken at in support of Trump
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
UFC President Dana White, a longtime friend of President Trump's, is set to speak at the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention Thursday.
The 51-year-old dismissed the critics who have lambasted him for wading so deep into politics ahead of the convention this week.
“That sh-- doesn’t bother me,” he told reporters Tuesday night, according to MMA Junkie. “Listen, this is America. Everybody has their own opinions and their own choices. I know that sometimes people go after you because of whatever, but everybody knows me. Everybody knows what I’m about."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
President Donald Trump and UFC president Dana White arrive at Madison Square Garden to attend the UFC 244 mixed martial arts fights, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
UFC PRESIDENT DANA WHITE DOESN’T CARE IF HE LOSES FANS OVER TRUMP FRIENDSHIP: ‘I DON’T GIVE A S---’
It will be the second convention that White has attended in support of the president, as he told the Republican National Convention in 2016 that "Donald Trump is a fighter, and I know he’ll fight for this country."
White's relationship with the president goes back two decades to the earliest days of the UFC, when the budding sport had a hard time finding a venue that would host fights.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
"When we first bought this company, venues didn’t want us. No venue wanted the UFC. At that time, Trump reached out and asked us to come to the Taj Mahal, and that’s where we ended up doing our first two events,” White explained last November. “Cut us great deals. Showed up at the first fight, stayed until the end.”
Since those first fights in 2001, the UFC has grown into a massively popular sport internationally with White at the helm as President.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Along the way, he said that Trump has shown support and maintained a relationship with him.
“Everything that ever happened to me in my career, Trump was the first guy to pick up the phone and reach out to me,” White said last November.
White has gone to dinner multiple times at the White House and visited the Oval Office with former interim welterweight champion Colby Covington in 2018. Trump, a fan of the UFC, sat ringside at UFC 244 in New York City last year.