Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fans have locked Saturday off their calendars for months. They were all waiting The long awaited comeback Former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor inside UFC 303. But a broken toe Just two weeks before battle night destroyed those plans.
Instead, viewers are finally tuning in for what could be a better contest between light heavyweight champions Alex Pereira and former champion Jiri Prachazka. The fight will be a rematch between the two brawlers Last seen in November 2023. That first fight was a back-and-forth battle, with each fighter landing big hits and takedowns. Pereira won by TKO after a devastating hook allowed Prachazka to take him to the ground for old-fashioned jabs, landing punches and elbows before the referee stopped the fight.
This time, the two will meet in front of more than 20,000 fans at a sold-out T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas — with More than 2 million viewers are estimated to be watching from home.
UFC 303 is expected to bring A record-breaking gate of $20 millionA feather in the cap for that The World’s Most Influential League of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). The UFC has been worth an eye-popping recently $11.3 billion.
But the UFC isn’t just a sports sensation that lures fight fans and constant look-outs to expensive pay-per-view events with the promise of violence and excitement. League is a cultural phenomenon. It has turned fighters into celebrities; This created new expectations of what fighting looks like in movies and media; And it even intersects with national politics.
In fact, how the UFC got so big says a lot about America today — and where American politics might go next.
How did the UFC get so huge?
The UFC has not always been a behemoth. In its early days, it was polished; One of the company’s taglines was “There are no rules“
Its no-rules violence led Sen. John McCain to call the UFCHuman cock fight“The lifelong boxing fan wrote to the governors of every state asking them to ban the organization’s events, saying, “I’ve seen people get punched in the face by a guy sitting on top. It’s not a sport!”
“That really sent [the UFC] In a pretty scary place. It started on pay-per-view. A lot of states don’t even want to do anything with it, they’ll shut down [fights] At the last minute,” Luke Thomas, CBS Sports combat sports analyst, said Today, explained podcast. “And in January 2001, the people who originally founded the UFC, threw in the towel. They sold it to Dana White for $2 million. [and] Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta.”
The UFC’s new owners have also struggled. Then Donald Trump called, White said in a podcastand said, “Come to my place. We’ll meet you here at the Taj Mahal.”
Trump’s invitation helped the UFC’s new owners in the short term, but it was really when they seized on a new trend — America’s love of reality television in the early 2000s — and created reality TV series. extreme warrior on Spike TV The league’s fortunes turned around.
“For the casual audience who might have heard of the UFC it gives a new face to it,” Thomas said. “The world saw really unique people doing really crazy things at the height of the reality TV show boom. And it works!”
And the success of the first season led to more seasons. This led to a deal with ESPN. The UFC was ultimately valued as a billion-dollar sports organization. And this has only enhanced its value and status in the culture.
How MMA Became MAGA
journalist Sam Egan Long time fighting game fan. He frequently writes and podcasts about the UFC, MMA, and domestic extremism. And he says he started to see things overlap after reporting the growth Neo-Nazi Fight Club In the United States.
“I would say that fighting is by no means an inherently conservative sport, but it presents itself as being about individuals. It’s a person competing against a person in a very violent, dominant fashion,” Egan said Today, explained podcast. “So there are these themes of dominance and violence — and in real terms, really to the right … they’re very easily paralleled in MMA.”
But it’s not at the extremes where Egan sees an overlap. He pointed to the 2016 Republican National Convention where Dana White became one of the first to publicly endorse Trump.
“For more than 15 years, Donald Trump has been a loyal and supportive friend,” White said. “And I know that if I need Donald, he’ll be there for me, just like he was the first time I met him.”
Trump was elected president soon after. But in 2019 he was quite unpopular. he was Booed at the World Series in Washington, DC. “And so, he makes an appearance at a UFC event soon after. And, you know, it gets the full treatment, cameras pan to him, and fighters are cheering his name and talking about him in their post-fight interviews,” Egan said.
Trump continued to appear at events periodically over the next few years. But then in 2023, it really takes off, Egan said. “By my count, he appeared in three separate events in the year alone. [And] As I was watching these events, I noticed that it felt like a prisoner campaign stop for Trump.”
“I’m sure there will be more in the lead up to the election.”
But Dana White isn’t the only one showing love to the former president. Former title contender Colby Covington has been built A complete personality Being a Trump fan around. he Maga wears a hat all the time; In post-battle interviews, he shouted out first responders, members of the military and Trump himself; and throws out phrases like “fake news“Regularly.
Jorge Masvidal, a Cuban American fighter from Florida, A series of pro-Trump rallies were held It is called a fighter against socialism. “We will either re-elect President Trump and keep America great,” Masvidal told a rally. “Or we let Joe Biden destroy the greatest country on earth.”
Despite the UFC’s growing popularity and its owners and fighters’ embrace of conservative politics, Egan said, “I don’t think the UFC will influence the election. [for Trump]”
But he believes Trump’s embrace of the UFC and combat sports has created a kind of blueprint for appealing to young people who “may be vaguely conservative but generally apolitical.”
According to the sports information site IMG Arena 75 percent UFC fans Men and 88 percent of men are between the ages of 18 and 44.
A demographic any candidate would be happy to tap.
