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Published 13:35 IST, May 11th 2020

Donald Trump is watching UFC 249 as a blueprint for opening up USA: Dana White

UFC president Dana White recently claimed that the President of USA Donald Trump sees UFC 249 as a 'blueprint' for bringing back normalcy to the United States.

Reported by: Raj Sarkar
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The materialisation of UFC 249 is reportedly being seen as a huge step in bringing the United States of America back to normalcy, as US President Donald Trump watched the event go live to ascertain how businesses can be brought back on track. While the world is forced to confine themselves indoors amid the pandemic, Dana White and his team successfully hosted UFC 249 in Florida with no fans in attendance. Apart from resuming the fight cards, UFC 249 was also under the radar of US President Donald Trump since he wanted sports to resume in the country. 

Also Read | President Donald Trump Congratulates UFC For Restarting Sports

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Dana White says UFC 249 was a ‘blueprint’ for Donald Trump to resume normalcy in the USA

While interacting with TMZ, UFC president Dana White revealed that Donald Trump did not want to reopen schools, colleges, and offices amid the pandemic. Donald Trump reportedly wanted to see how Dana White manages to pull off UFC 249 amid the current situation. "His (Donald Trump) whole philosophy was let's get sports back first, figure out how to do that safely. Then let's start figuring out how do you get people back in the office? How do you get people in cubicles? And, then how do you get kids back in school? So, this is something we've been working on and yes, he's absolutely watching what we're doing this weekend." said UFC president Dana White.

Donald Trump and Dana White have been friends for more than a decade now, and Donald Trump has admitted to being a fan of UFC in the past. Apart from keeping tabs on the organisation, Donald Trump has often arrived to witness various UFC events live. UFC 244 ‘Diaz vs Masvidal’ was one such event.

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Also Read | UFC 249 Ushers In Fan-free, Mask-filled Era Of Sports

The revival of UFC through UFC 249 is also being regarded as the ‘blueprint’ for other sports leagues to resume their activities closely. According to reports, NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB are also planning to resume their events and the success of UFC 249 could potentially inspire them to do so. However, no official dates have been disclosed by the sports organisations on resuming their events. The NBA is reportedly considering a return in June. However, other leagues are yet to settle on a date to commence their seasons this year. 

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13:35 IST, May 11th 2020