{"id":38879,"date":"2026-06-19T18:11:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/BJJ-icon-shares-details-of-how-UFC-White-House-card-was-conceptualized-201571"},"modified":"2026-06-19T18:11:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:11:41","slug":"bjj-icon-shares-details-of-how-ufc-white-house-card-was-conceptualized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/bjj-icon-shares-details-of-how-ufc-white-house-card-was-conceptualized\/","title":{"rendered":"BJJ icon shares details of how UFC White House card was conceptualized"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Meet Pedro Valente Jr., the only person in attendance at both
\nUFC
\n1<\/a> and
\nUFC White House: Freedom 250<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The eldest son of one of Helio Gracie’s most respected disciples,
\nPedro Valente (1938-2016), Pedro Valente Jr. can declare that he is
\nthe only eyewitness who was at the first UFC event in 1993 in
\nDenver and at UFC at the White House in 2026.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt was a unique emotion to see where this sport has come,\u201d Valente
\ntold Sherdog. \u201cI couldn’t help but remember the tribute that Rorion
\n[Gracie] paid to his father in the center of the Octagon at UFC 1.
\nThe old man would certainly be very emotional to see where it has
\ncome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with his brothers, Joaquim and Guilherme, Valente leads the
\nValente Brothers Jiu-Jitsu academy in Miami, which counts among its
\nstudents children and grandchildren of U.S. President Donald J.
\nTrump.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended up creating a bond of friendship beyond the mats, which
\nis why we were invited,\u201d Valente said.<\/p>\n

According to him, the idea for the
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> at the White House came from an
\ninformal conversation at his academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalking once with Jared and Ivanka [Kushner], I told them the
\nstory of Teddy Roosevelt, who in 1904 organized a fight at the
\nWhite House between American boxing and wrestling champion Joe
\nGrant, and judo master Yoshitsugu Yamashita (a disciple of Jigoro
\nKano). After seeing [Yamashita] submit the much larger American
\nseveral times, Roosevelt sent a letter to his son, Kermit, telling
\nhim what he had witnessed. [Yamashita] had easily dominated the
\nAmerican, even though he was much smaller, but that if Americans
\nlearned jiu-jitsu they would be superior. Ivanka was impressed by
\nthis story, which happened 120 years ago; she’s brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valente relayed that Ivanka told her father, President Trump: \u201cThey
\ncalled Dana White and that’s how the idea for this UFC at the White
\nHouse came about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Known for prioritizing the self-defense advocated by Helio Gracie
\nover the competitive jiu-jitsu so popular in the U.S. today, the
\nValente brothers are still considered the main guardians of Master
\nHelio’s memory, even having a small museum in the basement of the
\nacademy. Besides Trump\u2019s kids and grandkids, the children of Tom
\nBrady and Gisele Bundchen are now among Valente\u2019s students. Three
\nyears after the Brazilian model separated from arguably the great
\nquarterback in NFL history, she married the youngest of the Valente
\nchildren, Joaquim, in December 2025.<\/p>\n