UFC president Dana White admits “UFSEA” was John Oliver’s idea.
During a recent episode of Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” the comedic host poked fun at the UFC for holding events in the midst of a pandemic. In addition to criticizing the promotion’s cards in Jacksonville, Fla., Oliver cracked jokes about the prospect of “Fight Island.”
“He could have called it ‘Brawlhamas,’ or ‘Puerto Ruckus,’ or ‘Owie Maui,’ or ‘Slam Miguel,’ but he didn’t do that.” Oliver said. “He didn’t do that, and he didn’t even go with the obvious name for an island where you stage UFC fights which is simply, ‘UF-SEA.’ Look at me Dana. Why didn’t you just call it ‘UF-SEA? It’s perfect.”
While he wasn’t fond of Oliver’s UFC rant as a whole, White admittedly agreed with Oliver on one thing: ‘UF-SEA’ is great branding.
On Wednesday, news broke that the Zuffa had filed for, and acquired, four trademarks for “UFSEA,” which would allow the promotion to have the rights to the naming for events, merchandise, and more.
Later in the day, White was asked about the trademarks and confirmed the acquisition in an interview with ESPN.
“What’s his name?” White said, when asked. “The guy that came out. John Oliver came out and did that piece with some selective facts about what we had done in Florida and all that stuff at the UFC. I told my lawyers after that, I said, ‘See if the trademarks are there for UFSEA’. So obviously they did and obviously you guys know about them. Did we get them? Yeah, I think we got them.
“Thanks, John Oliver. I’m not giving you a cut.”
The four “UFCSEA” trademarks can be seen below (via the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office’s online records).
You can check out John Oliver’s full UFC-related segment below:
