FBI Director Kash Patel Considering Training FBI Agents With UFC Trainers

FBI Director Kash Patel has revealed he’s considering training FBI agents with UFC trainers.

The move by Patel attempts to increase agents’ martial arts and self-defense skills.

Patel revealed the idea during a call with the FBI’s 55 field officer supervisors.

Patel further revealed that deputy director Dan Bongino, a fan of the UFC, suggested the idea to him.

🚨Just in: FBI Director Kash Patel wants the FBI to establish a formal relationship with the UFC to develop programs for agents to improve their physical fitness

Via: ABC pic.twitter.com/qYmnMNoGiu

— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) February 27, 2025

Per Reuters:

FBI Director Kash Patel is considering bringing in trainers from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to beef up agents’ martial arts and self-defense skills, according to four people familiar with the plan laid out on a call this week with FBI field offices.

The newly appointed director discussed the idea during his first video conference call with the bureau’s 55 field office supervisors on Wednesday, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the call’s contents because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Two people briefed on the matter said current FBI agents described the idea as “surreal” and “wacky.”

The FBI declined to comment, and a spokesperson for UFC did not have an immediate comment.

President Donald Trump is a fan of the sport, mixed martial arts bouts that pit two competitors against each other in a cage, and notably attended a UFC event in New York days after his November election victory, sitting with UFC President Dana White, who he counts as a close friend.

During the call, Patel said that Dan Bongino, a far-right podcaster whom Trump tapped to be the FBI’s deputy director, is a huge UFC fan and that he inspired Patel to try the training, one of the people briefed on the call said. Patel added that he thinks it is great, and is exploring a partnership between the FBI and the UFC.

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

Per ABC News:

Newly-installed FBI Director Kash Patel, whose proclaimed plans to overhaul the nation’s premier law enforcement agency have rattled many within the bureau, has proposed enhancing the FBI’s ranks with help from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the martial-arts entertainment giant whose wealthy CEO, Dana White, helped boost President Donald Trump’s reelection, according to sources who were told of Patel’s proposal.

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On a teleconference Wednesday with the heads of the FBI’s 55 field offices, Patel suggested that he wants the FBI to establish a formal relationship with the UFC, which could develop programs for agents to improve their physical fitness, said sources who had been briefed on Wednesday’s call.

The virtual meeting with each field office’s special-agent-in-charge has long been a weekly occurrence, but this week’s call was the first led by Patel, who was sworn in as director on Friday.