FBI Director Kash Patel is “dead serious” about contracting with the UFC to help train rank-and-file agents, according to the organization’s president, Dana White.
Patel, a Las Vegas resident, was in attendance for UFC 313 on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena and discussed the plan with the head of the Las Vegas-based fighting organization.
“He’s dead serious about that,” White said. “We’ll see how that starts to come together.”
In one of his first conference calls with field office supervisors after being confirmed for the job last month, Patel reportedly discussed the potential of partnering with the UFC to help sharpen the combat and conditioning skills of FBI agents.
White said he first discussed the idea with Patel several months ago, but few details were offered and he didn’t know the plan was going to become public.
“After (that came out), my phone blew up because all these fighters want to be the trainers of the FBI guys now,” said White, laughing. “I’ve got everybody hitting me up.”
Patel watched a card that saw Magomed Ankalaev win the light heavyweight title in the main event by keeping feared striker Alex Pereira on his heels for most of the night en route to a unanimous decision.
Ankalev, who had been considered the top contender in the division since fighting Jan Blachowicz to a split draw in a forgettable dud of a fight in December 2022, finally got another shot and took advantage.
“I’ve waited a long, long time, but here is my dream,” Ankalaev said through a translator. “It’s on my waist.”
The result was hardly controversial, but it might not have been decisive enough for Ankalaev to move on to other challengers. White said he expects to book a rematch in short order.
“Gonna make some adjustments for the rematch, and I’ll be back much better,” said Pereira, who expressed dissatisfaction in Ankalaev’s somewhat conservative game plan. “You can count on it. Never give up on your dreams.”
Ankalaev, who entered the fight with a perceived massive advantage in the grappling department, neutralized Pereira’s striking the first three rounds by constantly pressuring forward, even though he was light on heavy exchanges. That largely kept Pereira from getting off his explosive power shots.
Once he had the lead in the fight, Ankalaev grounded out much of the final 10 minutes by pressing Pereira against the cage.
“I kept on moving forward and pressuring him, and he kept running away from me for 20 minutes,” Ankalaev said. “At the end of the fight, he said he wasn’t sure why the victory when I was pressuring him the entire time. I’m happy for the rematch, but maybe then he can fight for real and not run away the entire time.”
The card brought in a live gate of $10.1 million from a crowd of 18,869, which included controversial social media figure Andrew Tate and Patel.
Patel is a longtime friend of prominent MMA manager Ali Abdelaziz, who represents Ankalaev.
One of Abdelaziz’s other clients, Justin Gaethje, defeated lightweight contender Rafael Fiziev by unanimous decision in the far more exciting co-main event.
Gaethje said last week he was aware of Patel’s idea and wasn’t sure how much assistance he could be, but expressed his willingness to participate.
“I just heard about it while I was training for this fight,” he said. “So I don’t know many details, and I don’t really even know how it would work. But I’d absolutely want to be a part of it in any way I can.”
It’s unclear if the plan would call for fighters to work with FBI agents or whether the organization would provide access to the UFC Performance Institutes in Las Vegas and abroad.
“I’m not sure what I can do,” Gaethje said. “I don’t think these guys have a lot of hand-to-hand combat in their job. I think if they’re going to learn anything, it would be the mindset. But I’ve never had bullets flying at me, so who knows how I’d handle that. It will be interesting.”
