Just one week after taking over the office as new FBI director, Kash Patel is considering hiring trainers from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to enhance agents’ martial arts and self-defense skills, reports said.
The UFC is a well-known mixed martial arts organization in the United States.
FBI Director Patel Eyes UFC Partnership For Agent Fitness
During a teleconference on Wednesday with the leaders of the FBI’s 55 field offices, Patel said he wants the FBI to work with the UFC. According to sources familiar with the call, this partnership could help create programs to improve agents’ physical fitness, Forbes reported.
The virtual meeting, which happens every week, included the special agents in charge of each field office. However, this was the first time Patel had led the call since becoming FBI director on Feb. 20.
Sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that some FBI agents found Patel’s idea “surreal” and “wacky.”
Patel Wants FBI To Team Up With UFC, But UFC Says It Is Unaware
According to sources familiar with Patel’s proposal, he aims to strengthen the FBI through collaboration with the UFC, whose CEO, Dana White, is a wealthy businessman known for supporting President Donald Trump’s re-election.
Following Trump’s election victory in November, he attended a UFC event in New York, sitting alongside White, whom he considers a “close friend.” A UFC official later stated that the company was “not aware of any information regarding UFC and FBI training.”
The FBI director mentioned that his deputy, Dan Bongino, is a big fan of the UFC and inspired him to consider the training, as per the Reuters’ report. Patel said he was interested in the idea and was exploring the possibility of a partnership between the FBI and the UFC.
“There is training the FBI receives in physical altercations. 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,” a former Justice Department official said. “It’s clearly motivated by the glitz and glamour show, and Trump’s friend.”
Since taking office, Patel has implemented major changes at the FBI. One of his first decisions was to order the transfer of approximately 1,500 FBI employees from Washington to field offices across the country, including an FBI office in Huntsville, Alabama.
