UFC CEO Dana White and FBI Director Kash Patel have jointly announced that a group of current and former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters will train FBI agents at the bureau’s academy in Quantico, Virginia.
The two-day training seminar, taking place on Saturday and Sunday, marks the first time professional mixed martial artists have been brought in to lead combat instruction at the facility.
The Line up
| Role / Status | Name |
| Interim UFC Lightweight Champion | Justin Gaethje |
| Former UFC Middleweight Champion | Chris Weidman |
| First-ever UFC BMF Champion | Jorge Masvidal |
| Former UFC Lightweight Title Challenger | Michael Chandler |
| Former UFC Strawweight Title Challenger | Claudia Gadelha |
| Top Flyweight Contender | Manel Kape |
| MMA Athlete | Renzo Gracie |
| UFC Matchmaker | Mick Maynard |
What the Training Will Cover
The UFC said the fighters will provide FBI senior staff and academy students with insight into how professional fighters prepare for competition, as well as demonstrate specific techniques and tactics.
The organisation described the group as offering “a unique perspective to the students as they prepare to enter the field office,” though it did not specify which combat disciplines or techniques would be covered in detail.
White framed the session in straightforward terms.
“UFC fighters are some of the baddest men and women on the planet and they are heading to Quantico to train the best FBI agents in mixed martial arts,” he said in a statement. He added that the UFC is “proud to support the FBI in strengthening their defense techniques” and expressed what he called “tremendous respect for the FBI.”
Patel described the collaboration as a natural fit. “This is a tremendous opportunity for our FBI agents to learn and train with some of the greatest athletes on earth, helping the world’s premier law enforcement agency be even better prepared to protect the American people,” he said.
A Relationship Built on Shared Ties to Trump
The announcement arrives against the backdrop of a well-established relationship between the UFC and the current administration. White has been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump since the early 2000s, when Trump hosted some of the first UFC events at his business properties.
White spoke at Trump’s victory rally following last year’s election, and Trump has been a visible presence at UFC events, including a fight in Miami attended by Patel, White, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk.
Patel, who was appointed to lead the FBI by Trump and has no background as a field agent himself, is a known fan of the sport. His enthusiasm for UFC appears to have been a driving force behind the Quantico arrangement.
The two organisations are also collaborating on a significantly larger event this summer. Trump announced last year that the White House would host a UFC show on June 14 as part of the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations. That date is also Flag Day and Trump’s 80th birthday.
White has said he expects around 5,000 spectators to watch from the South Lawn, with approximately 80,000 more fans viewing from a nearby park in Washington. The UFC has not yet confirmed a full card for the event, but Trump has said the fights will be the “biggest they’ve ever had.” The cost of staging the event at the White House is reported to be around $60 million.
Former Agents Push Back
Not everyone in the law enforcement community sees the Quantico training as a straightforward benefit. Former FBI agent Chip Massey said the bureau already has well-established systems for preparing agents for physical confrontations in the field.
“The FBI has a full complement of people who know how to train agents going out into the field in hand-to-hand combat,” Massey said. “I don’t see the benefit of having UFC fighters demonstrating for FBI agents how to beat people up.”
Massey, who now runs a crisis management firm called Convincing Company, made a pointed distinction between what UFC fighters are trained to do and what FBI agents are expected to do in practice. While a fighter’s objective is to incapacitate an opponent, an agent’s job requires a more measured approach.
“FBI agents are trained to gauge a situation and use a minimum amount of force to subdue a person so they are no longer a threat to the agents or themselves,” he said. “Part of the nuance of the job is talking to a person so things don’t get out of hand. What the UFC does is a gladiator-style spectacle with bare-knuckle brawling. That’s not how we are trained.”
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that criticism.
A More Measured Take
Not all former agents share Massey’s skepticism. Jody Weis, a former FBI agent who also served as Chicago Police Department superintendent, said the concept gave him pause at first, but that he can see a legitimate application for this kind of instruction.
“Most fights will end up on the ground, so it just makes sense to me to incorporate some MMA training,” Weis said. He specifically mentioned Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a discipline that could give agents additional options in physical confrontations, noting that it would expand their toolkit “besides strikes and weapons.” Weis made his comments to Sinclair’s The National News Desk.
The debate between the two former agents reflects a broader question about how law enforcement agencies should incorporate combat sports training into their programmes. FBI agents already undergo hand-to-hand combat instruction as part of their academy curriculum, and critics argue that bringing in professional fighters introduces techniques suited for a competitive environment rather than real-world law enforcement situations. Supporters counter that exposure to elite-level training can only add to an agent’s capabilities, particularly in ground-based confrontations.
The UFC has not indicated whether the Quantico seminar will become a recurring arrangement or whether it is a one-off event tied to the current relationship between White and the administration. The FBI has also not confirmed publicly how the training will be integrated into the academy’s existing curriculum, if at all.
What is clear is that the partnership between the UFC and the federal government continues to deepen, from a weekend training session in Virginia to a multimillion-dollar fight card on the South Lawn of the White House.
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