Dana White’s fun, back-and-forth feud with “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver turned into something positive.
Back in May, Oliver took to his show to make some lighthearted jabs at the UFC’s concept of “Fight Island” – a series of events happening in July on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi designed to offer international fighters facing COVID-19 travel bans to the U.S. a place to compete. Not long after the segment, the UFC trademarked Oliver’s idea to call it “UF-SEA” rather than “Fight Island.”
“He was making fun of ‘Fight Island’ basically saying this idiot is going to go to an island where people can fight during COVID-19 and stuff,” White told TMZ. “I’m actually a John Oliver fan and I trademarked, he said we should just called it ‘UF-SEA’ so I trademarked ‘UF-SEA.’ He went out and bought a trade mark of ours that had lapsed and he’s actually doing baby onesies that say, ‘You will submit,’ or something like that.”
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White revealed the promotion did indeed make “UF-SEA” t-shirts that are now for sale. The positive twist, however, is that proceeds generated by the merchandise will be donated to the Bob Woodruff Foundation – a charity that helps support post-9/11 impacted veterans, service members, their families and caregivers.
“My t-shirts are done, these are going to go up for sale on the UFC website,” White said. “They’re going up this week and all proceeds to these t-shirts will actually go to … I did some research and John Oliver, one of his big charities is the Bob Woodruff Foundation and the Woodruff family foundation mission is to make sure injured post 9/11 service members veterans and their families are thriving long after they return home. So that’s one of his charities (and) all the money from these UFC shirts are going to go to one of John Oliver charities.”
The first event on “Fight Island,” UFC 251, goes down on Saturday. Three more events follow on July 15, 18 and 25.
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