Trump Just Picked Up A Major Endorsement From The Sports World

The president of one of the world’s fastest growing organizations in sports made it clear that he is supporting a presidential candidate who supported him when the UFC was struggling to gain attention.

“Donald will get my vote,” Dana White said in a recent TMZ Sports interview.

He was referring, of course, to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump — an early proponent of White’s UFC mixed-martial arts league.

“When we first bought this business,” White recalled, “it was banned in most states. It wasn’t supported by the athletic commissions; and no arenas wanted this thing.”

It was Trump, he explained, who “was the first one to have us come out in the Trump Taj Mahal.”

In addition to hosting the events, White said that Trump “actually showed up and supported the events.”

That early support led to White’s lasting respect for the billionaire-turned-politico.

“You will never hear me say a negative thing about Donald Trump,” he said.

TMZ later caught up with the UFC’s most recognizable name, Ronda Rousey, to get her take on White’s statement. As it turns out, the two steer clear of the potentially divisive subject.

“Me and Dana talk about a lot of things,” she said, “but politics are not part of our conversations.”

Rousey last month endorsed Democrat Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential race.

Trump will bring the endorsement with him to Tuesday’s Republican debate, where he will once again stand center-stage among his primary election rivals. He will also face a surging rival in Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who now leads the crowded GOP field in multiple Iowa polls less than two months before that state’s first-in-the-nation caucus.