Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
The UFC’s latest “Fight Island” shirt is up for sale, but all proceeds are going to charity.
In May, political satirist John Oliver took a slight jab at the UFC and company president Dana White for their planned “Fight Island” events. The Last Week Tonight host went on to mockingly suggest the name “UF-Sea,” which the company took seriously and filed a trademark for.
The UFC continues to run with Oliver’s suggestion, but this time, it’s also for a good cause. In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, White revealed a new batch of “UF-Sea” t-shirts that are now on sale for $35 each. All proceeds, he says, will go to one of Oliver’s supported charities.
“He was making fun of ‘Fight Island’ and basically saying ‘this idiot is going to build an island where people can fight during COVID-19’ and all this stuff,” White said of Oliver (transcript by MMA Fighting). “I’m actually a John Oliver fan. So I went out and I trademarked — he said you should have just called it ‘UFC-Sea’ — so I trademarked UFC-Sea. Then he went out and bought a trademark of ours that had lapsed and he’s actually doing baby onesies that say ‘you will submit’ or something like that.
“My t-shirts are done. These are going to go up for sale on the UFC website,” he added. “They’re going up this week and all proceeds to these t-shirts — I did some research and John Oliver, one of his big charities is the Bob Woodruff Foundation.
“The Woodruff Family Foundation mission is to ensure injured post 9/11 service members, veterans and their families are thriving long after they return home. So that’s one of his big charities. So all the money from the UF-Sea shirts are going to go to one of John Oliver’s charities.”
UFC 251 kicks off Fight Island events this Saturday at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Headlining the card is the welterweight title fight between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal.