Donald Trump could have been an MMA promoter today if Josh “The Warmaster” Barnett had “just said no” to the juice. Back in ’09, Trump’s MMA promotion was almost single handedly ruined by “The Warmaster”. If the 2016 presidential election infuriates you, blame Josh, call it the steroid-butterfly-effect. If you would like to see him get knocked unconscious as retribution for our current presidential pickle, he fights on Saturday night against Andrei Arlovski at UFC Fight Night Hamburg. If you are excited about Josh sending Trump down the path towards politics, tune in and perhaps you will see him win! Both Josh and his opponent weigh about 250lbs. Let me tell you, SOMEONE is getting put too sleep.

Regardless of your political orientation, there are likely many strange things that come to mind when thinking of Republican Nominee Donald Trump. I have a new one for your quiver: Donald Trump: Hall of Famer. Trump sits in both the New Jersey State Boxing Hall of fame and the New Jersey State Martial Arts Hall of Fame with the title “Visionary”. This is the story of his failed career as a Combat Sports promoter. It sits alongside his other sports ventures, notedly starting a football league to rival the NFL, and a Tour of America to rival the Tour de France. This story I will call “the time Trump tried to start a boxing location to rival Vegas and an MMA promotion to rival the UFC.” Win or lose, success or failure, it’s an interesting story. Let’s dive in…

Trump’s first venture into combat sports came when he decided to sponsor and promote 22 year-old Mike Tyson’s title defense against Leon Spinks in Atlantic City on July 27th, 1988. Trump fronted the 11 million dollars necessary to host the fight, and in doing so put Atlantic City on the map as a boxing mecca for years to come. Tyson was boxing in the lat 80s and early 90s, and Trump maximized the young fighter’s fame and success through financial support, promotion, and financial management (of questionable legality).

Atlantic City rose with the tide brought on by Tyson’s revival of mainstream boxing interest. In the first bout of the Trump-Tyson Atlantic City Era, Tyson blew through Leon Spinks in just 91 seconds. With those 91 meticulously promoted seconds, a new precedent for boxing promotion was set. Large fights that would have otherwise taken place in Las Vegas, could now take place at Atlantic City’s legendary Boardwalk Hall. Tyson would go on to beat Tyrell Biggs, Larry Holmes, Leon Spinks, Carl Williams and Alex Stewart in Atlantic City with Trump-backing.

Donald Trump would next appear in the world of combat sports in the year 2000.

The early days of the UFC (1993-2000) met widespread outrage from parents, politicians, and mainstream culture. UFC commentator Joe Rogan recalls that telling someone that he worked for the UFC in the 90s was like “admitting you work in porn.” Detractors called it dangerous, barbaric “human cockfighting.” Events could only be found on cable Pay-Per-View or bought in cold hard plastic (VHS), usually between the pornography and snuff film sections in seedy video stores. As a Millennial, I am too young to tell you exactly what these viewing methods entailed. Reading the historical records I have surmised this: it was difficult, controversial material to get your hands on.

Initially there were no gloves and no rules other than mutual agreements between fighters not to bite each other.. Live events took place in small towns in the West and South like a macabre traveling circus. Locations like Casper, Wyoming; Bay St. Louis, Mississippi; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Dothan, Alabama Tulsa, Oklahoma populated the event schedule. This is where Mr. Donald Trump enters the MMA narrative.

You may have heard recently that the UFC sold to new ownership 4.2 billion dollars. The previous owner, Zuffa LLC, acquired the UFC in 2001 for a mere 2 million (take a moment and appreciate that return on investment!) In 2001, just after this acquisition, Donald Trump opened the doors of his Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, thereby risking his own money and reputation on mainstream adoption of MMA. His gamble paid off. With Trump’s promotional work legitimizing the sport, UFC began to gain momentum. Soon after, the UFC broke onto the Las Vegas scene.

According to UFC President Dana White, “The Trump Taj Mahal was the only venue that would take us and accept us at the time. … [Donald] saw this thing before anybody else did. A lot of people want to jump in after and everybody tries to throw money at it … but this guy saw it before anybody did.”

However, Trump had not yet washed his hands of the sport, he was about to roll up his sleeves and go elbow-deep. In 2008 he bought equity stake in Affliction Entertainment, an organization that aimed to challenge the UFC for dominance of the MMA market. As you could probably imagine, fight promotion comes with huge up-front capital risks. If Trump payed 11 million to promote Tyson in 1988, you can imagine what it took to host his own MMA events in Vegas 20 years later.

Trump regarded his Affliction project with the optimistic gameness of a startup entrepreneur, telling the press in 2008: “If we make money, that’s great. I think we will. I think it will be successful. What I do is usually successful.”

Many speculate that it was the “high stakes” approach Trump took with Affliction that ultimately led to its downfall. In an attempt to legitimize the sport and draw eyes, Trump’s Affliction advertised an unprecedented payroll, with numbers as high as 800,000k/fight for headliners, unheard of at the time. In addition, he brought Russian MMA legend and “greatest heavyweight in the world” Fedor Emelianenko (pictured left in above picture) to fight for the first time in the United States against top American fighters.

11 days before the third Affliction event that was to be called called “Trilogy”, Josh “The Warmaster” Barnett (pictured left) was popped for anabolic steroids, ruining the headline fight versus the legendary Fedor (pictured right). The event was cancelled, and Affliction Entertainment folded due to considerable financial pressure and debt.

The bottom line? Donald Trump could have been an MMA promoter today if Josh “The Warmaster” Barnett had “just said no” to the juice. If this presidential election infuriates you, blame Josh, call it the steroided-butterfly-effect. If you would like to see him get knocked unconscious as retribution for our current presidential pickle, he fights on Saturday night against Andrei Arlovski at UFC Fight Night Hamburg. If you are excited about Josh sending Trump down the path towards politics, tune in and perhaps you will see him win! Both men weigh about 250lbs and let me tell you, SOMEONE is getting put too sleep.