FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly has proposed working with the mixed martial arts entertainment group the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to enhance the fitness of agents.
The comments about improving agents’ physical fitness were reportedly made during a teleconference on Wednesday by Patel who was speaking with the heads of the FBI’s 55 field offices, ABC News reported.
Patel, who was sworn in as director last Friday, reportedly said that he wanted to establish a relationship with the UFC to create a fitness program, though the details of what that would entail are still unclear.
A source with the UFC told Fox News that while UFC President Dana White and Patel know each other, the UFC has not been made aware of any information regarding the two sides training with one another. White has been a longtime friend of President Donald Trump.
JUST IN: Newly-installed FBI Director Kash Patel has proposed enhancing the FBI’s ranks with help from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the martial-arts entertainment giant whose wealthy CEO, Dana White, helped boost President Trump’s reelection. https://t.co/BHSwfsOrh8 pic.twitter.com/YWOxMeWDbO
— ABC News (@ABC) February 27, 2025
“There is training the FBI receives in physical altercations,” a former Justice Department official told the New York Post. “If Kash Patel believed that should be beefed up, the answer is not to go to Donald Trump’s best friend who runs the UFC.”
The FBI declined comment to ABC News.
Patel was sworn in to his role on February 21 after being confirmed by the United States Senate. In one of his first moves as head of the agency, Patel wants to relocate 1,500 FBI staff outside of Washington, D.C., including moving 500 staff to Huntsville, Alabama, according to the Associated Press.
Patel was confirmed narrowly in a 51-49 vote in the Senate. At Patel’s swearing-in ceremony, President Trump said he nominated Patel in large part because “of the respect the [FBI] agents had for him.”
“I think he’ll go down as the best ever at that position,” Trump said.
After his swearing-in, Patel began his first remarks as FBI director thanking the president.
“What a ride we have been on. What a courageous warrior and leader he has been, and the faith and trust he has put in me to lead the FBI is the greatest honor I will ever have in my life,” Patel said.
Patel is taking the helm of an agency that has been battered by scandal and controversies in recent years, including the Russian collusion conspiracy and questions over the bureau’s role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Tim Pearce contributed to this piece.