I love MMA but of course it's not the only sport I watch. It's so weird to watch the UFC because compared to most of the other major sports I watch their the ones who seem the most set on not really investing in their product lol.
Fighter pay is pretty much directly tied to why this sport has been so watered down the last few years. Aside from people who just absolutely love fighting they're gonna struggle to attract future top level athletes because it's just not a financially smart decision.
If I'm a high school kid trying to pursue a career in the athletic field there are so many other stops to make before you'd even settle on MMA or try and make it to the UFC. There are kids in college on NIL deals that probably make more than top professional UFC fighters.
Idk. Honestly I don't see the product getting better anytime soon. Not to say that there arent fighters still worth watching. But in the long run I don't see the quality of the product improving because the potential best talent they could attract will go elsewhere to another sport that financially makes more sense.
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That's the only term I can think of to describe a situation that makes this the ugliest integration of sports and politics in history.
I want any reader to understand how slow and even somewhat insidious, the merging of the UFC and right-wing politics has been and how it eventually turned into a literal, full blown rally for the Trump party as America prepared for the 2024 elections.
There has been a steady brewing and melding of alternative thinking, right wing ideology and then Trump's Republican party.
The "alternative" ideas of a guys like Bryce Mitchell and his belief that the earth is flat was just the beginning of it and he was not alone either.
This was a sport made up of guys like Tim Kennedy and Eddie Bravo , who followed suit with this and at the time, this collection of eclectic characters just made MMA a sport with crazy personalities, and they occasionally spoke up about the crazy stuff they believe.
It wasn't until the Joe Rogan Podcast would be the first iteration of entertainment or content, that took all these beliefs/ interests and packaged them into a single show that really played to this niche crowd and even gave these same guys platforms to showcase this side of themselves.
All relatively harmless up to that point.
While Joe Rogan's podcast has really been given the full brunt of the criticism for platforming right wing figures, the change in Rogan's guest list is far more recent compared to the existence of content creators like MMA Guru.
MMA Guru is a YouTuber and while he may claim to be apolitical, the nature of his content is at worst racist, sexist and misogynistic and his success in the YouTube space really serves as the first acknowledgement that there was a merging between right wing ideology and the MMA fan base.
This was of course complemented and aided by UFC fighters themselves. Dricus Du Plessis would ordain him by granting him an interview, validating him and his audience in the process.
Mind you, this is happening against the backdrop of the UFC becoming more openly associated with Donald Trump himself.
Colby Covington was the first to openly support Trump in what really seemed like something of a joke at first.
Then Colby was publicly acknowledged by Donald Trump himself and that gave the joke legs. That joke went so far that Colby Covington winded up making an appearance in the white house in 2018.
Later other fighters would follow suit and would openly seek out opportunities to be publicly acknowledged by Trump. It was a full blown trend among UFC fighters, regardless of race or ethnicity, a lot of UFC fighters sought out PR moments with Trump
Jone Jones was among the most prominent. Kevin Holland, though a black man like Jon Jones, rushed to the edge of the octagon to shake Trump's hand. Jorge Masvidal openly praised the man in his post fight speech despite Trump's comments about Latinos, and of course Dricus Du Plessis couldn't keep himself away from Trump and his open, flagrant racism.
Not only would UFC fighters embrace him, but crowds at UFC's live events would cheer the man during his live appearances, but what brought it all to a head was when the UFC president allowed Trump to use the UFC as a platform for his campaign in 2024.
This is why the biggest culprit in all of this was Dana White.
While the Donald Trump campaign was far more deliberate in using the UFC as a platform for their election campaign in 2024, Dana White's support of Donald Trump goes all the way back to his first presidency in 2015.
Dana White has by far been one of Trump's most consistent supporters, and while the other elements like content creators, Joe Rogan's podcast and even the fighters on Dana's roster could all have been in play, none of that would have opened the door for Republican and conservative party sentiments in the UFC the way Dana White's open support of Trump has.
The right-wing leaning, alternative thinking, flat-earth believing mindset that is prevalent in the UFC fan base was enabled far more by the owner of the UFC than anybody else and the current political leanings of the UFC as a company, in conjunction with that of it's fanbase, is a reflection of Dana White's own politics.
From what appeared to have started out with him in the role of a campaign donor, to playing occasionally playing spokesperson, to outright allowing his business to be a platform for Trump's campaign and now for the Republican party as a whole, it has all coalesced in the current political atmosphere that embodies the UFC today.
Mind you, this is made even worse by the fact that you can no longer separate the UFC president's politics from how the company deals with things like fighter pay and compensation because Dana's history with paying fighters illustrates that the UFC boss does not believe in fair compensation of his labor force.
So glaring are the contradictions that it wasn't long after the 2024 elections that Dana announced that he was "done with disgusting politics".
It's both hilarious and naive that Dana thinks that it's that easy.
The idea that this man can play up the right-wing sentiments among his consumers and fans, allow his fighters to get in on the game for the free promo of being seen alongside Trump, and then think he can just wash his hands of the whole thing and think his business will follow suit.
Doesn't work like that, Dana!! You made this mess!!! You allowed all these right-wing guys, Republicans and even Donald Trump himself to think that the UFC was their own personal platform to advance their own interests.
Yes, the UFC is protected in a lot of ways by being a monooply.
Luke Thomas is a well known MMA journalist and during a May 1st interview with Rick Strom, Thomas explained how the UFC is typically protected from consequences other businesses would be affected by because of their monopolistic status
However, time will tell if this merging of Republican party, the right-wing personalities that surround it and the UFC will bear fruit.
Oscar De La Hoya Warns Fighters of Zuffa’s “Peanuts” UFC Business Model
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l @ 7
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Markus Perez says Jorge Masvidal Boxing promotion pays him '3 times more' than what UFC did
#Gamebred #GamebredBoxing
Former UFC fighter Markus Perez finished his UFC career. But he is not done with combat sports. He made an appearance on the Trocação Franca podcast and spoke about his career. He reflected on the money he received from Jorge Masvidal for his upcoming fight at Gamebred Boxing 4. The event is in the books for April 1 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Gamebred Boxing is a boxing…
The UFC made a live announcement Tuesday morning about their exclusive partnership with Reebok. The deal includes branded uniforms for the UFC and its fighters. Starting in July of 2015, fighters will be wearing the Reebok branded apparel during events.
A major plus of the deal for fighters of the UFC roster is that 100% of the money from the deal with Reebok will go to the…
