Senior Pentagon leaders are putting together lists of uniformed US service members who will be offered the chance to attend the UFC fight at the White House next month hosted by President Donald Trump, but tickets will only be given to those who meet weight requirements that are part of military fitness standards, according to guidance memos reviewed by CNN and sources familiar with the process.
“Ticket recipients are required to meet the DOW waist-to-height ratio standard of less than 0.55, as well as all service specific physical fitness test requirements,” one of the memos sent to service members says, using the Pentagon’s preferred acronym for the agency.
That figure is roughly in line with standards for service members that the Defense Department put in place earlier this year when it made waist-to-height ratio the new body composition standard for measuring a service member’s “warfighting readiness.” It is part of an intense focus on physical fitness by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who described his vision for the military in a speech to senior uniformed leaders last year.
There will be no “fat troops” or “fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon,” Hegseth said in the October during a speech at Marine Base Quantico, Virginia.
