Last week, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White spoke at the Republican National Convention (RNC), where he bellowed his support for U.S. President Donald Trump over the course of a five-minute pre-recorded clip.
White’s RNC appearance — his second speech for Trump in 2020 — was filled with vociferous endorsements, right-wing talking points, blatant lies, and an endless stream of Trump campaign propaganda. His bombastic speech was a necessary reminder that White — and by extension, the UFC — has become a thinly veiled platform to reelect the sitting president.
While the vast majority of mainstream sports leagues have stepped beyond their athletic endeavours for social justice stances such as Black Lives Matter, anti-racism, and gender equality — stances that have since angered right-wing mobs and politicians and led to boycotts — the UFC has instead chosen to ignore these crucial societal concerns in exchange for talking points that pander to Trump’s base of right-wing supporters, many of whom now champion the UFC as the last bastion of American sports institutions.