The FBI is moving to give the UFC an exclusive one-year contract to teach its agents mixed martial arts, and nobody else gets to bid. According to a report from The Guardian, republished by Yahoo Sports, the bureau filed a Sole Source Justification form in September. That is the paperwork that lets the government award a contract without considering competing offers. In the filing, the FBI called the UFC “uniquely qualified” for the work.
The form also lists what the bureau thinks it’s buying: “the trainers provided by UFC have the skills necessary to instruct striking techniques, grappling/takedowns, weapon defense, ground control, as well as conditioning to the standard that the FBI expects and requires.” The exclusive deal would run for one year. Any longer contract would be opened to competitive bidding after what the document calls “market research.” The FBI hasn’t said how much it plans to pay.
The Quantico Tryout
The contract follows a two-day seminar in March at the FBI Special Agent Academy in Quantico, Virginia. The bureau announced it in the run-up to UFC Freedom 250, the card held on the White House South Lawn this summer to mark Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. Seven past and current UFC fighters ran roughly 300 agents and academy students through hand-to-hand training. Former middleweight champion Chris Weidman was photographed showing attendees how to fend off attackers. UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethje and Jorge Masvidal were also among the trainers. The fighters wore branded UFC-FBI training gear. FBI director Kash Patel posed for photos with agents and appeared to be handing out signed headshots of himself.
“[UFC CEO] Dana White has changed the game in the mixed martial arts industry and we’re extremely honored to be partnered with him, the professionals, and the UFC,” Patel said in the UFC’s press release. “We are grateful for their shared love of our nation, so that we can better defend her.”
Who Was in the Room
The report notes that several of the March trainers have ties to the administration or to Patel himself. Masvidal headlined a “Fighters Against Socialism” tour across Florida with Donald Trump Jr. before the 2020 election. Gaethje has stumped for Trump many times, including at the 2026 midterm convention in Dallas, where he urged Republicans to vote with the same intensity they showed in 2024.
Several of the fighters are managed by Ali Abdelaziz. He once worked as an informant for the FBI and the NYPD, and that relationship ended after agents reportedly doubted his reliability. Abdelaziz campaigned for Patel to get the director’s job and used his clients’ social media accounts to push the idea. He attended Patel’s Senate confirmation hearing and was at the Quantico seminar. Last month he was photographed partying with Patel at the wedding of former Trump lawyer Alina Habba.
The broader ties go back years. UFC owner Ari Emanuel was once Trump’s agent. White is a close friend of the president and has campaigned for him across three presidential runs. The State Department signed a memorandum of understanding with the UFC on “sports diplomacy.” The promotion also took on a sponsorship deal with defense tech company Anduril.
My take is simple. Combat training for cops and soldiers is old news. The Canadian military ran jiu-jitsu seminars in 2024, the UAE builds Brazilian jiu-jitsu into military and police training, and retired FBI agent George Piro, who led the interrogation of Saddam Hussein, won his division at the IBJJF World No-Gi Championship after leaving the bureau. Every item on that FBI skills list gets taught at any decent gym within an hour of Quantico. If I could bet against one phrase in this story, it would be “uniquely qualified.” I’d also want to see who shows up once that one-year clock runs out and the bidding is supposed to open.
